


Harry Potter and the Anthem of Kairos

by Nightlit



Category: Harry Potter - Rowling
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2010-09-25
Updated: 2011-03-15
Packaged: 2017-10-12 04:30:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 70,619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/120805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nightlit/pseuds/Nightlit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dumbledore stares out over an unfamiliar skyline, thinking about his students and the upcoming war.  Meanwhile, Harry waits, unknowing for the upcoming year, which will reveal to him a truth of Hogwarts past and how that truth will effect its future.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Dumbledore's Weapon

**Author's Note:**

> This story was originally written before the publications of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

The wind blew outside the window on the otherwise calm day. The modern skyline was different from the countryside Albus Dubledore was used to, but a spectacular view nonetheless. He was sitting in a quaint office with sandy colored walls. The room was sparsely furnished with a bookshelf on his left and an average sized desk covered in random office supplies in front of the single window. Otherwise the office was barren. He had come here by stepping out of a broom closet that was somehow attached to his more usual floo network. Apparition, like at Hogwarts, was warded against.

The man he had been waiting for was now sitting on the other side of the desk twiddling his hands while halfheartedly using an oddly normal looking computer. He was a short old man whose head was surrounded by a mixture of gray and brown hair with dark eyes with piercing specks of red. He was wearing a button down shirt and denim pants, making him look more like an office worker then the principle of a prestigious American wizarding school.

"To what honor do I deserve this meeting?" Said the man, "Considering the effort it must have taken to get here, it must be important."

"It is Roland. In fact it is quite urgent." Dumbledore looked tired, like he hadn't gotten enough sleep for many days. His eyes were drooping slightly and his hair had dulled from gleaming silver to merely a bright shade of white. "As you are probably quite aware, Voldemort is back again. And, as you may have guessed, I will in fact be needing that thing we talked about."

"So that wasn't an unbased rumor like your ministry played it out to be? The scourge of the European magical world is back again eh?" Roland looked quite unimpressed. He didn't even flinch at the use of the Dark Lord's name. Instead he started drumming his hands on the table and his eyes started wandering around Dumbledore's unkept appearance, at least unkept for how he remembered his old friend.

"Yes, and I am quite aware that his reign of terror did not quite reach your doorstep, Voldemort never having gotten to a point where he was ready to cross the sea."

Dumbledore's outburst had an equally unimpressive effect on Roland as the Dark Lord's name and instead of responding to it as many people would have, with offense or fear, simply stopped drumming his hands, looked Dumbledore in the eyes again and said, "Oh yes his encounter with the 'Boy Who Lived'. What's his name… Harry Potter? I hear he goes to Hogwarts. And that he has done many things quite beyond his age? Hmm… Now there are a few stories I'd like to hear." For the first time Roland seemed interested in the conversation. He leaned over and put his elbow on his desk listening intently while looking ever more so into Dumbledore's soft blue eyes.

"I am sorry my friend, but I cannot delve greatly into the events of the last few years. I have not the time nor the safety net around you for that."

Roland leaned back in his chair, obviously disappointed but not in the least bit offended. "Oh well then… But you will tell me at some point won't you?" He had a pleading tone to his voice, like he never saw anything interesting happen anymore and this was a simple bit of excitement in an otherwise boring existence.

"Of course I will, but back to business. I am in a great hurry and I will be needing it quickly."

"Okay. I will need to send a caretaker along with it. I hope you understand."

"Of course I do. And while young Tinderspoon is there, he will be a student and have all the respect he deserves."

"Ah right, Wesley. You see the thing about it is…" For the first time in the conversation Roland looked slightly uncomfortable. He began tapping his fingers more forcefully and his eyes darted above Dumbledore's head.

"I am quite aware of Wesley Tinderspoon's situation. I have already dealt with the matter." Dumbledore was still calm but obviously starting to get impatient. His gaze was a bit more forceful and he had steepled the tips of his fingers together, propping his elbows on Roland's desk. "I really am in a hurry, so could you fetch it and its caretaker now? Or shall I come back at a later date?"

"It would actually be better if you took him now. He has most likely packed his school supplies to go home and is thus ready to leave."

"Will there be a problem with him adjusting?"

"Possibly. Although he is fairly good at adjustment, given his situation, and he has been informed that something like this might happen."

"And his parents?"

"They have been informed. And frankly, don't have any misgivings about it."

"Understandable all things considered.” Dumbledore thought for a moment before continuing. “Then I will wait here while you please go collect him." Dumbledore leaned back in his chair. The tips of his fingers were still together in front of his chest but the desk no longer supporting his robed elbows.

"I will be back in a few minutes then." Roland got up and left the room through the door opposite him immediately behind Dumbledore. Dumbledore sighed and checked one thing off his mental list of things to do.

It was then that an owl swooped up to the window behind Roland's desk. Dumbledore quickly vanished the glass so it could get in then materialized it again. He groaned as he read it. It was another thing to worry about and he really didn't have the time. There was only one real solution, and it perfectly meshed with what he already had planned. A certain someone was going to get a surprise this summer. A surprise that would likely be anything but pleasant…


	2. Unexpected Unpleasentness

A boy lay awake in his bed. He was normal enough looking: about the right shape, if not a few sizes too small. The only thing that set this boy apart from any other boy was the lightning bolt scar on his forehead. Harry Potter was too irritated to even pick up his glasses. He'd had yet another dream about Voldemort. As he had no way of knowing whether there was any truth to these dreams, he hadn't bothered remembering them. _Apathy is a form of Occlumency I suppose._ He mused to himself. _Cynicism too… Although I wouldn't want to find out if he can cast Imperius on me from far. I have been able to shake it off so far, but that may change._

He let his thoughts drift to the OWL results he got the previous Thursday. He was surprised that he had gotten even an E on his Potions OWL, but he had hoped for an O. He would now have to rethink his future as an Auror, as there was no way that Snape was going to let him into his class without the highest of awards. And even then, Harry was sure that the man would try to find someway of getting out of it. If Snape was good at anything it was manipulating things. To make matters worse, he had gotten an O on his Defense against the Dark Arts Owl and Es in both Charms and Transfiguration. _Why did the Potions professor have to be Snape?_

His other OWLs were unimpressive. He had done incredibly badly on his Astronomy OWL (although he had somehow managed to just pass it), but that was because of Umbridge's attack on Hagrid which wasted at least 10 minutes of his exam time. It didn't change the OWL result, but it made him feel better. Even Hermione had done worse as a result, so he knew he wasn't the only one affected. Everyone was distracted. He had surprisingly managed to get an A on Divination… How he didn't know, but he had a sneaking suspicion that it was because of his visions of Voldemort or simply because he was the "Boy Who Lived" rather than the test. In Care of Magical Creatures he just missed an E, getting a high A. He had basically failed History of Magic, having gotten a horrible D, although that was certainly do to his passing out partway into the exam. In Herbology he had gotten a respectable E, although he probably should have gotten an O. He could only attribute the lower grade to negligence on his part.

 _Well, I could go for Arthur Weasley's job. It might be interesting to see what things people enchant. Or maybe I could become an Unmentionable?_ A memory of Sirius appeared in his head. The department of mysteries was nothing more then a grave to him, making him shake off that idea just as quickly as he got it.

Harry's summer had been horrible, despite almost daily contact with the Order and Moody's threat over the Dursleys' heads. He kept having random dreams of Voldemort doing things which he had learned from experience that he could not trust. They kept changing everyday and were becoming more of a nuisance then anything. The Dursleys handled this situation the same way they handled anything related to Harry that they could not control: they ignored him, interacting with him only in the manners required to keep a 16 year growing boy alive. To top it off, Harry wasn't even sure he was growing anymore. Dudley was now bigger then ever and everything seemed roughly the same to him as it had last year.

The problem with this strategy of non interaction was just that, no interaction. Harry found himself missing being chided by his aunt and uncle and teased by Dudley. At least that was something. Without it, he felt lonelier then ever and daily letters from everyone were only making it worse. Everyone was off doing things except him. Hermione was finally spending a summer at home, something her parents seemed happy about, and kept writing him about how nice it has been to finally see them and her old friends again, how proud of her they were and other such muggle mundanities. She had gotten perfect Os on all of her OWLs except Astronomy, where her practical examination was a high E, but her overall average was still an O. He remembered an entire letter complaining about that. He had laughed through the entire letter, especially at the P.S. at the bottom: 'And you better not be laughing at this Harry Potter! Those exams were important!'

Ron's letters, on the other hand, were always about Ginny's newest prospective boyfriend or the fact that he had gotten better at quidditch. As expected, Ron had conveniently omitted any reference to his OWLs. Harry wasn't sure this was because of embarrassment or simply because without Hermione around, neither Ron nor himself had much care about them aside of what NEWTs they would be taking next year. Of Ron's letters, Harry was often more amused by his tirades about Ginny then anything else. Those letters kept getting more and more ridiculous as he over heard Ginny talk about at least four different boys at school in a few days. Harry had a hunch that Ginny was doing this on purpose just to get to him. She seemed to take a bit after Fred and George and anyone with eyes could see Ron's responses to any of his sister's prospects. Besides Harry himself of course, but that had never been real, or even false for that matter.

Harry hadn't been able to play Quidditch last year and he wasn't sure he would ever be able to play again, so the only excitement he got out of those letters was Ron's, good to be sure, but short lived. Besides, he knew Ron was a good Keeper having practiced with him on multiple occasions. He just needed to stop worrying about what everyone else thought of him and play for the reason he signed up in the first place: because it was fun.

Harry himself had been sending letters to the Order almost daily. At first his letters were fairly long and involved, but the weeks rolled by and he had less and less to say. Eventually he simply started writing the same thing over and over again:

'I'm not dead. They aren't treating me horribly. Hope to see you soon.'

'-Harry'

The only reason he even bothered doing this was because he knew that if he didn't Moody would show up and there was no telling what he would do. He was sure that they would catch on to his misery at some point this summer, but until then all he could do was wait.

So there he was, alone in his room in number 4 privet drive wallowing in his own self pity and boredom while trying to decide whether his growing hunger was worth the effort it would require to get food, when he heard the front doorbell ring. The Dursleys were not in, having left early that morning for some such event that Harry had not been told about, so he jumped up, tripped over his own blankets and landed smack on his glasses on his bedside table.

Harry swore as he picked up his now broken frames and tried to get them on his face in such a way that they would stay on by themselves as he ran down the steps. Unfortunately, the earpieces were quite ruined so he had to resort to holding the lenses in front of his eyes as if they were a monocle.

As he ran down the steps, the doorbell rang for the 20th time. "Okay! Okay I'm coming!" He yelled irritably, wishing he could use his wand to fix his useless glasses frame. He was ready to give whichever neighbor was coming over to borrow a cup of sugar or something a piece of his mind when he opened the door, but when he opened his mouth no words came out. Instead he let out a breath that was somewhere between surprise and indignation. Severus Snape was at his doorstep and that wasn't even the worst of it. Standing behind him was Draco Malfoy, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle.

"What are you doing here?" He spat out angrily.

"Delivering your new house guests, of course." Snape said. "Oh what better birthday present to the Boy Who Lived, son of James Potter, then delivering my prize student to live with him for a month." He had a happy but very vindictive tone and looked almost like he was about to start skipping. "Oh and Potter, before you four get all cozy I need a word with you in private." It was not a request. Snape's voice was returning to its normal less happy, but still vindictive tone. Harry wasn't surprised at this. If Severus Snape were to be described in one word, vindictive would be the one to use. It seemed to be the only emotion he showed effortlessly.

"Ok, we can talk in my room. Hey ferret," Malfoy's glare intensified at that comment, "Crabbe, Goyle. If you really are staying here for the summer, which you must be because I have never seen Snape…"

"That's Professor Snape to you. Unless you do not intend to come back to Hogwarts this year?" Snape's smile looked a bit too hopeful.

"Ok, PROFESSOR Snape this happy and other people's… well my misery seems to be the thing which causes that the most. So go to the kitchen, get out what little food you find and don't touch anything else!"

"Snape…"

"Did I NOT just tell you to call me Professor?" Despite the angry tone in Snape's voice, Harry could tell from his slight smirk that he was loving this.

"Okay then, PROFESSOR Snape,” Harry paused for a moment before continuing, “follow me." With that Harry let them all pass, slammed the door shut and stomped up to his room. He did not need this right now, certainly not on his birthday, but it was happening anyway so he was going to have to live with it.

When they got into Harry's room and shut the door, Snape started before Harry could even ask why they were there. "Draco, Vincent and Gregory have been sent here by Dumbledore to be protected from the Dark Lord and their parents by the vary protection that protects you. It is Dumbledore's hope that he will not be able to penetrate here for the same reason he hasn't been able to in the past.

"I on the other hand volunteered to drop them off because I needed to speak with you anyway. It has come to my attention that you are interested in becoming an Auror. Is that right Potter?"

"Yes sir." Harry wasn't sure where this was going, but his chances of becoming an Auror seemed less hopeless then it had before Snape had shown up.

"Well then you will need to take my NEWTs class. But as you are probably quite aware, I only take those with Outstanding OWLs in my class, which as expected, you failed to achieve. However, given the situation at the end of the year and the fact that I wouldn't be a very good Death Eater if I passed up the chance to be near the Boy Who Lived. Not to mention my hatred for Umbridge..." Harry wasn't certain where this was going so he remained silent as a small glimmer of hope rested itself in his otherwise desperate mind. "...I have devised a test of my own to see if you are ready.

"I heard from your testing instructor that you got the Polyjuice potion surprisingly accurate given the state of the rest of your answers. I have a few guesses as to HOW you managed that, but they are irrelevant. What is relevant though is my test: I want you to make me a Polyjuice potion by next term. You must acquire the ingredients yourself. I would make you get the recipe too, but I know you would just run to Ms. Granger anyway and thus the point would be lost. Given this, here are the potion's instructions." He handed Harry a piece of parchment with a few things scribbled on it. "You may check it with Ms. Granger if you wish but I assure you that everything is there. I look forward to your attempt at this Potter." He smiled again, "Have a good day."

Harry squinted his eyes at Snape. There had to be a catch, Severus Snape would not just come in here and hand Harry this easy a ticket back into his class and his dream job without a catch. And he certainly wouldn't seriously be telling Harry to have a good day. He followed Snape to the front door and, as they stepped outside, the other shoe dropped. Snape turned to Harry, smiled evilly and said, "Your aunt and uncle will be getting a letter shortly stating those three's situation. In the mean time they are your responsibility and _I_ will hold you personally responsible if anything happens to them." And with that he looked around to see if anyone was looking. When he saw it was clear he disapparated without another word, leaving Harry to sort out what was bound to be a horrible mess. _Blast! I should have asked him to fix my glasses while he was here! Oh well, just another thing that I will have to deal with now. Bleh, he WOULD leave me in charge of this. Dumbledore certainly wouldn't._

Before heading to the Kitchen, Harry got some tape and jury-rigged his glasses so that they would at least stay on his face of their own accord. He was surprised that the lenses were unscathed. _Statistically speaking, I suppose something had to go right today._ After that he turned his thoughts to his more immediate problem.

As he walked into the room, Harry got his first real look at them since they got there. Malfoy was sitting at the kitchen table with Crabbe and Goyle looking rather annoyed. Harry now noticed they were wearing quite well picked sets of muggle clothing. Malfoy was wearing a nice flannel shirt and jeans. Crabbe and Goyle were wearing t-shirts instead of flannel and of course bigger jeans, but all three of them looked so normal that no one peeking in here would be the wiser.

It was also clear that the three of them had grown a lot more then Harry had over the last year and first month of summer. He hadn't really noticed much at school as he was always in a group or had something else on his mind. Malfoy had finally grown noticeably taller then Harry, the top of Harry's head was at about his eye level. Goyle, on the other hand, towered over Harry in what would be a rather intimidating fashion were these three at all able to intimidate him. He was so much taller than Harry that were Harry to stare straight forward, he would be staring somewhere between Goyle's torso and abdomen while the top of his head almost reached Goyle's chin. Crabbe was only slightly shorter and slightly stockier than Goyle, although they were both quite big. Harry's head came to about Crabbe's mouth, making him look like a little kid to anyone who might be watching.

"Well, I have many guesses as to why you are here but frankly I don't care." Harry started irritably. "I am going to have to somehow convince my uncle and aunt to take you three in for however long Dumbledore wants you to be here and that is going to be enough work already."

"Living with filthy muggles…" Draco started.

Harry cut him off, "For once I agree with you. The Dursleys' ARE filthy muggles, but it wouldn't be a good idea for you to mention that you have anything to do with the wizarding world or they will never let you stay here."

"Hmm…" For the first time in Harry's life Crabbe seemed to be thinking to him.

"Come off it! We don't need to stay here scar head. We are quite capable of taking care of ourselves!" Malfoy seemed to be unshaken by his current situation. He seemed more angry and annoyed than anything else.

Harry smirked, "I'd like to see you live on your own for a month, while on the run from death eaters and not using magic. You're still under age, so I bet the ministry of magic would find out where you were right quick if you cast any worthy spell. And of course the Death Eaters would know very soon after that, as I find it hard to believe that they do not have a spy or twenty there at the moment." Malfoy grumbled but apparently couldn't think of a rebuttal for that so he just sat there.

"Harry, what is going to happen to us?" Goyle asked, he looked completely different to Harry then he usually did. Whereas normally he looked angry and intimidating, right then he looked a tad frightened. Not terrified by any means, but the kind of frightened one gets when everything around him changes and there isn't really anything he can do about it. Crabbe looked similarly non-threatening, but he looked more complacent that scared.

"I honestly wish I knew. I have no idea how in the world I am going to convince my aunt and uncle to let you stay here, especially after Dumbledore's letter arrives. That will just confirm what they will suspect all along: that you are part of the world they most despise." Harry was calming down, becoming more rational. _How am I going to do this? And how am I going to get this done AND make a polyjuice potion?_ Then it hit him! The perfect excuse: Hermione. Her parents are muggles, so there wouldn't be a problem there; she of everyone he knew was most likely to know what to do; and she could help him with the polyjuice potion. His uncle wouldn't suspect a thing (in fact he might be happy that Harry was hanging out with such a "normal" person for a change) and to top it all off, he would be able to tease Malfoy about how he was saved by a "mudblood" for months. It was the perfect plan.

"I'll be right back. Please don't break anything and if you hear anyone come up to the door, hurry to my room, it's the first door at the top of the stairs, then just pray that my uncle decides to continue ignoring me and doesn't come in. I'll find you in a bit." And with that, Harry walked off. He was glad that he was going to be able to plan with Hermione, who he was beginning to like a lot more than Ron lately.

Ring, ring, ring, _Come on Hermione answer the phone!_ Harry's thoughts were almost screaming in his head.

It rung a few more times and he was about to hang up when he heard the click of someone answering.

"Hello?" Came a woman's voice. Harry didn't recognize it, but he assumed that it was Hermione's mother.

"Hello," Harry responded, "Is Hermione in?"

"May I ask whose calling?" _Duh, she hasn't really met me. Definitely doesn't know me enough to know my phone voice._

"This is Harry Potter, Hermione's friend from school."

"OH!" Harry could imagine recognition coming to her face, Hermione had to have told her parents many things about him. "The person she keeps sending those owls too. Why she doesn't just use the normal post I will never understand," Hermione's mother sounded like she was muttering to herself more so than talking to him. Then he heard a slightly muffled yell. "Hermione! It's for you! It's Harry!"

Harry heard footsteps rapidly approaching. "Harry?" Hermione's voice was music to his ears, _Finally something goes my way._

"Yeah, it's me."

"I'm glad you called but… won't you get in trouble for calling here?" Hermione sounded excited but confused and worried at the same time. In another circumstances Harry might have been irked that the first thing she asked him was whether he was going to get in trouble, but today she was his only way out and that was much more important than that annoying habit of hers.

"Well, for one, my Aunt and Uncle aren't here, so they wouldn't know anyway. And even if they knew about the call, as long as they don't think you're part of the wizarding world or 'those people' as they like to call us, they would bother me about it but probably wouldn't do anything else. Especially with Moody's threat over their heads. The lot of them have been avoiding me all summer except for food and the like."

"Okay, so what's up?" Hermione sounded giddy, like she expected gossip or something. She sounded totally unlike the Hermione he knew at school. _Then again, it is just us and we're not exactly in a serious situation… yet. He would be happy to talk to her if she had called him._

Harry hated to break the good news with an actual reason for this uncalled for call, but there were more important things to be said. "Actually there is a reason I called you…"

"Is it about the polyjuice potion you have to make for Snape?"

Harry was stunned, "How do you know about that?" Harry had forgotten about Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle for the moment.

"I was walking down to breakfast at the Order's headquarters while hanging out with Ron one weekend when I heard Dumbledore and Snape talking about it."

"Oh…" Harry wasn't sure whether to be pleased that Hermione already knew or annoyed because she had been to yet another gathering of the Order without him. _Of course with Voldemort able to enter my mind, even if it does cause him pain, it would not be a good idea for me to be anywhere near the Order._

"I have fluxweed picked at the full moon and have been stewing lacewings for 5 days now. We should be able to get the rest of the ingredients at Diagon Alley when we go get our books."

"Um… shouldn't I do SOME of the work here Hermione? After all it is my test, and frankly Snape wouldn't take a potion he thought was too perfect. He'd assume you made it."

"Oh Harry, don't be silly!" Hermione spoke as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Of course you are going to be making the potion. I have just taken the liberty of procuring the more difficult ingredients. Specifically the ones that require time because I am sure you won't be able to where you are. Besides, you would need a place to brew it anyway."

"Hey scar head what's taking so long?" Malfoy's voice brought him back to reality. And then he remembered the other half the reason he had called.

"…Harry, please tell me that wasn't Malfoy?" Hermione sounded slightly surprised, but not as much as he thought she should be.

"Yes actually, it was. Apparently Dumbledore sent him here along with Crabbe and Goyle to protect them from the Death Eater's or something. Snape dropped them off when he told me about the potion. Actually, that's the other half of the reason I called. I was wondering if you could help me figure out a place for them to stay, because I know that my uncle will never let them stay here in a million years."

"Who is that you're talking to?" Malfoy asked. "It wouldn't be that mudblood Granger would it?"

Without his constant anger of the previous years Harry found himself not caring at all. There would be little point in escalating the situation by trying to fight with him, and even if he wasn't scared of Crabbe and Goyle, the fact that they were still a lot bigger than he was did not escape him. Besides, it had happened so many times by now that it was more common then him referring to her by name. "Yes actually it is. And unless you want to be left out in the cold, I suggest that you leave me alone so I can figure out a place for you to stay."

Malfoy looked like he wanted to say something but thought better of it and left. _Well, that's something Malfoy has never been, stupid. He knows that he's stuck with me just as much as I'm stuck with him._ It wasn't that Harry really cared about this fact, he was far beyond caring. His ability to truly care had been lost over the two months he was at the Dursleys'. Being stuck alone in his room, not caring had been the only way he survived. Anger had been this crutch last year but that had got him nothing but alienation. It was even the cause of his godfather's death. _No! Can't think about that right now have to keep from thinking about that right…_

"Harry are you still there?" Hermione's voice snapped him out of his reverie.

"Yeah, sorry about that…" Harry's voice came out a lot more casual then he has intended. _Well maybe that's a good thing. This is Hermione after all. She has only been my friend for five years. Why shouldn't I be casual with her?_

"…she might be able to take them." Harry had been lost in thought and had missed all but the last of what Hermione had just said.

"Sorry, could you repeat that?"

"What? Oh ok. I said that I thought Ms. Figg lived around there. You said something about her being a squib or something last year? She might be willing to take them. And if she's anything like you have described her, then it might be something he needs."

Harry laughed for the first time in months. "Thanks Hermione!" Harry was glad he called her. It appeared that he could get rid of Malfoy completely and his Uncle would never have to know he was even there. All he'd have to do is intercept the Owl before it got to him.

He turned to Malfoy. "Ok ferret, it looks like we've found a place for you to stay. That is, gratefully, not here. Nearby there is a squib named Arabella Figg. She would know enough about you to not be totally out of place and she knows Dumbledore. I don't know if Dumbledore intended for you to stay here or not, but especially with a letter from him, I doubt you would ever be able to. Uncle Vernon would throw the lot of you out in a heart beat. And I really wouldn't blame him."

"So that's how it is Potter. We get dropped on your muggle uncle's doorstep and you hand us off to the neighborhood squib?" Malfoy was truly angry. Harry scoffed at that silently. How could Malfoy be mad about this? Well, he could understand the boy being mad at having to live with him all summer. But not having to live with Harry and being sent to live with someone who is, or at least was, part of the Wizarding world had to be better then getting killed or worse by a death eater. The thought that the ministry had lost control of the dementors didn't elude him, and he was sure that they would be incredibly happy to feed one someone who got so much glee out of other's misery. He would look so tasty seeing all that horrible sadness. Harry was getting ahead of himself. He couldn't honestly say that he knew how Malfoy would react to seeing all of that and he wasn't exactly the best judge of his character being that they had been enemies, or maybe rivals was a better word for it, since their first year.

"Well suit yourself. But it looks like you don't have much choice unless you want to be caught by death eaters."

"Um…Harry?" Hermione's tone caught his attention again. "I'm not doing anything this weekend. We could meet and discuss the situation in person?"

"Are you sure? I mean we would be meeting about Malfoy. And it is highly likely that he will be present at the time." Malfoy's face didn't change in the slightest when his name was mentioned. Apparently he understood to well the way they all felt about each other.

Hermione's tone told Harry she was rolling her eyes as she spoke, “Harry, I'd like to think I'm mature enough to discuss this situation like a reasonable adult regardless of who may or may not be present at the time.”

Harry sighed. She was probably right, "I guess, but where am I going to keep these three in the mean time? Saturday's three days away."

"In your room I guess. Oh and make sure to feed them. Pets, even mean ones like ferrets, still need their nutrients." Harry laughed. Hermione had changed so much over the years. At first she had been a snooty goody two shoes know it all and recently she seemed to break the rules almost more than he did. Or maybe he just thought that because she's the one who actually came up with all their rule breaking plans, regardless of whether she agreed with them. Her sense of humor had been growing too. She would have never made a sarcastic remark like that in her first year, but last year she had made many. None in the mothering tone she had just used, but there is always a first time for everything. Malfoy's look deepened, his anger more obvious. Harry knew he wasn't entirely oblivious. They were obviously laughing at his expense.

"I don't think that will work quite that well...” Harry couldn't think of a better plan though, so he sighed and said, “Oh well. I guess I'll have to think of something."

"Sorry I can't be more helpful. If I knew your aunt and uncle a bit better maybe I would have a better idea, but I don't know what would work. Well…actually why not meet them? I have heard so many things about them, and I would like to see for myself just how true they are. It doesn't even need to be a friendly visit. I could just show up and act really mean to you. Tell them you cursed me or something and see what happens."

"Don't do that, I wouldn't hear the end of it for weeks. This is probably a bad idea in general. I'm only going to be here for one more summer after this anyway."

"Oh well. I'll call you later in any case."

Harry's heart jumped a step _She can't call here Uncle would kill me._ "Hermione, please don't. I'll call you. I already have enough trouble without a random person calling for me. They know I don't know anyone from the muggle world. Especially after that Ron incident three years ago, they would assume the worst."

Hermione laughed, no doubt she had been told all about it. "That was one of the funniest things he had ever told me. The best part was he couldn't see at all what was humorous about it! I suppose he wouldn't being that it was the first time he had ever seen a telephone let alone used one, but it was still quite amusing." Hermione's laugh died down to a snicker allowing her to talk more like herself. "I wanted to call you after that, but I assumed the same thing you just told me and decided it wasn't a good idea. The last thing you needed at the time was someone adding wood to an already heated fire."

"Yeah."

"Harry, we're about to sit down to lunch so I'll expect a call from you before the weekend okay?"

"Okay." Harry almost instantly returned to his more recent normality of annoyed indifference after he heard the click of Hermione hanging up. Then he saw Malfoy and returned to his state of a few minutes before: extreme annoyance and indifferent acceptance towards an uncontrollable situation.

"Okay me and Hermione are going to meet…"

Draco cut Harry off, "We're not going to accept help from a MUDBLOOD! That is simply NOT acceptable! We would rather be caught by the death eaters than do that!"

Crabbe and Goyle had just walked in and from the looks on their faces they had heard what Draco had just said. Whatever boundaries they had with him had obviously just been crossed. "What the!" Goyle yelled shocked. "And you call US stupid!" Goyle's voice still sounded like it came from a classic idiot, but his words held more meaning to Harry then anything he had ever heard him say. Goyle may not be the smartest brain in the bunch, but he wasn't nearly as brain dead as Harry had previously thought, and he wasn't a mindless follower either.

"Yeah! You're CRAZY to think WE want to get caught! 'Specially over a stupid mudblood!" Crabbe's voice also still sounded rather idiotic to Harry, however they were questioning Malfoy, something he had never seen them do in his entire time at Hogwarts.

Draco turned and looked at them sternly. They both backed up, and Harry saw something that he had not expected. He had always thought that Crabbe and Goyle were friends of Malfoy's, or at least as close to friends as one could be with him, but what he saw shed new light on their relationship. They were scared of him.

Harry decided that now was the time to make the decision that had to be made. And it really wasn't his to make, it was the three other people in his house's.

"Ok, well if that's how you feel ferret, then you can go." Harry said rather calmly given the circumstances. He then walked to the front door, opened it and then motioned with his hand to leave as a bellhop might motion someone into their room at a hotel.

Malfoy headed to the door and then looked back. Crabbe and Goyle had not moved. "Are you coming?" Malfoy's voice was quite stern, like a major talking to his new recruits, but Crabbe and Goyle didn't move. Apparently they feared the death eaters a lot more then they feared Malfoy.

"It looks like your going alone." Harry said smugly. Malfoy looked at him with pure malice in his eyes and then looked at Crabbe and Goyle in a similar manner.

"FINE!" He yelled angrily. "We'll stay here and accept help from the mudblood and the halfbreed! But let no one claim that I disgraced wizards here!"

Harry noticed that any smugness in Malfoy's voice was gone. No longer did he have that 'I'm so much better than you' tone. He was just flat out angry. His body language spoke wonders though. He still was just as stuck up as ever, nose up and refusing to look down at him. _This is going to be a long month._ Harry thought as he showed the three of them up to his room, glad that the Dursleys hadn't showed up during this already hectic event.


	3. Plans, Potions and True Intentions

It was the weekend after Harry had first talked to Hermione and he, Crabbe, Goyle and a very indignant Malfoy were headed to Ms. Figg's house. Harry was so thankful that no letter from Dumbledore had in fact come that he didn't even noticing the oddity of a three day delay in the Owl post. He didn't want to have to explain anything to Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon at all, let alone after they learned it was related to his so called 'unnaturalness.'

This morning had been hard enough for them to even get out of the house. Harry had to distract his aunt and uncle during breakfast while Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle snuck out. It had been Hermione's idea for them to meet there instead of at his uncle's house. Harry had managed to sneak a phone call in when his aunt and uncle had taken Dudley out to lunch, one of the many 'special treats' that they gave him for essentially no reason. Dudley was still on his diet (and so then, of course, was Harry) so they had compromised with an all you can eat salad bar much to both Dudley and Vernon's dismay.

The diet had been a problem for Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle as well. Harry had not been able to get enough food to his room to keep them happy. Of course, he was used to going without, but they apparently weren't and Malfoy's constant complaining about it had not helped matters. At least he had done it quietly, as to not call attention to himself. Although Harry figured it wasn't because he didn't want to get Harry in trouble, but was probably because of the tirade Vernon made upon finding Pig buzzing around the living room as he delivered yet another letter from Ron. It was all Harry could do to stop Vernon from killing the hyperactive owl. He didn't even have time to send a return letter before he had to throw Pig out the front door. After finally getting rid of the annoying bird he had to listen to his uncle yelling at him about his friends contacting here, apparently forgetting Moody's threat for the moment. Harry hadn't cared. He was so used to this that he was able to tune most of it out by now.

Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle on the other hand seemed to get what Harry meant about his Uncle and the wizarding world. Crabbe and Goyle had stopped complaining about the lack of food altogether evidently thankful that they had a place to stay at all.

Harry hadn't been surprised that the Dursleys' hadn't ventured into his room while his three guests were there. They had barely ventured there before, only when they wanted to yell at him. Being that they were scared to death of Moody, not to mention the rest of the wizarding world to which Harry had become a major part of, they had stepped into this room maybe twice over the course of the summer and that was usually to get his owl Hedwig to shut up. Hedwig was off delivering the return message to Ron and so conveniently had not been there most of the time to get them caught.

In any case the phone call to Hermione had gone quite smoothly and they had agreed to meet at Ms. Figg's house that following Saturday. Hermione's parents had even agreed to drop her off without much fuss, although Harry could tell that it was reluctantly. He had no idea where Hermione lived so he had no idea how far out of their way they were going.

Ms. Figg's house was just another typical muggle house with the same simple two floor design as the Dursleys' house. The main difference was that most of the furniture was scratched up and the house was filled with cats. No one looking here would think anything of any wizarding world. They might think the owner a bit odd, but that would be quite understandable. Harry had always thought Ms. Figg was odd, even when compared to most wizards he knew.

Hermione and Ms. Figg were drinking tea in a kitchen that Harry vaguely recognized from his unhappy childhood. It wasn't particularly different from his kitchen unless you counted the fact that most of her shelves had different kinds of cat food and that her countertop was laden with random cat dishes. They seemed to be having a quite happy conversation about something, Harry guessed cats, since that was Ms. Figg's obsession and Hermione did still have Crookshanks.

Malfoy seemed even more appalled and unhappy about his situation than previous now that he actually saw Ms. Figg's house and Harry could see why one would be. He certainly wouldn't want to live here for any amount of time if he could avoid it. He would rather live here than with the Dursleys', but that's wasn't really saying much as he would rather live just about anywhere then with them. Crabbe and Goyle on the other hand, still seemed rather relieved just to be alive, and Goyle in particular seemed even to smile a bit.

"Hello, why don't you come and have tea with us?" Ms. Figg said as soon as she noticed the four of them. "I wouldn't want you boys to feel left out."

Harry walked up to the table and after a slight hesitation Crabbe and Goyle also followed. Malfoy, the ever present stick in the mud, refused to move and seemed even more appalled at his lackeys than when they stood up to him those three days ago.

Hermione, as Harry expected, was the first start talking as she explained their situation to Ms. Figg who appeared to listen intently to her. Harry had not remembered her ever listening to him with any intent at all. Then again he had been younger than ten then and probably wouldn't have had much if anything relevant to say to her anyway.

After she was done Ms. Figg looked at the four boys with the same look she had given Mundungus Fletcher a year ago when Harry had first found out she was more than the crazy old cat lady he had always seen. _This isn't a good sign._ Harry thought tentatively.

"Harry Potter!" Harry flinched as he was reminded of Ms. Weasley. "I am appalled at you! Foolish boy. You very well know why I cannot take care of these three. It is the same reason why you cannot stay here for the summer instead of at those horrible Dursleys'!" Ms. Figg looked at him very much like Hermione did when she was angry at his sillyness. Hermione seemed shocked at this outburst and was staring at Ms. Figg as if she had just leveled a grenade launcher filled with water balloons at her. Crabbe had hidden behind Goyle who had tried quite ineffectively to hide behind Harry.

Ms. Figg then seemed to calm instantly as she said, "But of course you can make your potion here. I wouldn't want to stand in the way of your great career as an auror. Not after watching you grow up so quickly." Her tone was mothering now. He wouldn't have believed that Hermione could have a more shocked expression than at her previous outburst but sure enough she did. He felt Goyle's hand fall on his shoulder, stiff as a board, and he figured that she wasn't the only one. He of course had been with her many a time and had seen Mrs. Weasley do a similar turn around even more commonly, so he was only mildly surprised.

Hermione was the first to snap back to reality and she quickly said. "While that is good, it still does not solve the obvious problem of convincing the Dursleys to let the three of them stay." Hermione was back to her old intelligent self instantly.

"Hmm…" Ms. Figg contemplated. "Well I suppose they could stay here. It wouldn't help protect them any, nor me for that matter, squibs are useless for protecting anything from full blown wizards and certainly dark lords. Everyone knows that! Whereas if they were to stay with Harry it is unlikely that You Know Who could get anywhere near them. At least that's what Dumbledore says anyway, and if we can't trust him then who can be trusted with questions like this?"

Harry was getting impatient. That was obvious now that he thought about it, otherwise why would Dumbledore send them to him in the first place? The problem was that stating the obvious, that as long as they were with Harry and he was protected from Voldemort that they would be protected to, got them no closer to finding an actual place for the three to stay. Hermione's house was obviously not an option, as nothing protected it from Voldemort's wrath and they were probably prime targets enough with just her connection to him. And even though he knew his uncle would never allow it, he could think of no other option other than throwing them out on the street. Which even if he could live with doing that, he didn't think Dumbledore would be pleased at all.

Hermione thought while taking notes for a bit and eventually said, "Well I can't think of any place for them to go besides the Dursleys'. So we should probably try and figure out a way to get Harry's uncle to allow them to stay there rather than sitting here arguing over who would be in more danger where." Hermione was deep in Hermione mode as she thought about the situation. Harry would have thought it was funny if the situation wasn't so grim. For some reason her hyper controlling planning mode had often amused him and Ron, although that could be because it was usually in a situation where they had to find something to amuse themselves to avoid going insane.

"Can you think of something?" Crabbe's voice sounded as he stepped out from behind Goyle. He obviously trusted Hermione's brain even if he didn't trust her blood.

"Of course…she's Granger." Goyle's voice seemed a bit less tense with Hermione on the job. Everyone knew that, short of a Ravenclaw, Hermione Granger was your best bet if you needed a clever idea to get you out of a jam, even those people who hated her. Goodness knows she had gotten Harry, herself and Ron out of plenty.

Harry was just as relieved at this as Crabbe and Goyle were, as he had no idea how he was going to pull this one off. Pulling one over Filch or most of the professors at school was one thing. Pulling one over on the Dursleys' was another and he to his knowledge had yet to ever really do anything deceptive on purpose that had got him anything from them other than being locked in the cupboard. _They may be horrible, but they're not stupid. Well, Vernon and Petunia aren't anyway._ He had very quickly stopped trying when he realized that they never trusted him anyway so actively trying to trick them was nearly as pointless as trying to tell them the truth.

Malfoy seemed to be the only one who was not at least slightly relieved to be thinking about the current situation. He remained silently standing in the doorway to the Kitchen brooding the with the Malfoy signature scowl.

Then he spoke with a tone that said that he wanted this over with as quickly as possible. "Why don't we just use Obliviate or Imperius on them? It would be a lot easier than actually trying to get along with them."

Everyone in the room, even Crabbe and Goyle, looked at him like he needed his head examined.

"IMPERIUS!" Hermione exclaimed. "Are you TRYING to get sent to Azkaban or are you just THAT stupid!"

"Well considering that the Dementors have gone over to You Know Who, I doubt I have to worry about being sent there." Malfoy cocked a smile at this, obviously happy that he had caught Hermione on something.

"Well you should be glad of that, because I don't see why they didn't send you there ages ago." She shot back at him pointedly. At that Malfoy shut up again, returning to his former scowl.

Goyle went back in his 'attempting to think' pose again before he said. "Casting Imperius is a bad idea. But what about threatening them?" He looked to Hermione for confirmation. Harry expected Hermione to scoff at that idea, but to his surprise she just looked intrigued and pulled a pen and notepad out of her pocket and wrote something on it.

"You know that's not a bad idea. I wouldn't jump on it just yet, as there is probably a more diplomatic way of doing this, but yes, I do think that threatening them might work if we can't think of anything better." Hermione seemed to be talking to herself just as much as the rest of them. But Goyle seemed quite happy that Hermione had even given his suggestion any thought at all. Harry knew that as dumb as they seemed Crabbe and Goyle had to be aware of everyone's feelings towards them by now and he assumed that getting Hermione Granger to acknowledge an idea of theirs would certainly make either of them happy, especially if they themselves bought into the idea that they were stupid.

Harry's opinions on Crabbe and Goyle, Goyle in particular, were beginning to change drastically. Unfortunately Malfoy, the one who he really had actually hoped would change to be a bit more bearable, had not. Something Harry knew was going to be a problem regardless of what they decided on here.

"Well, this is a conundrum if I have ever had one." Hermione said her face obviously deep in thought. Then her face changed to that expression that let Harry know that she had come up with something. "Brilliant! Just brilliant! Oh I am such a fool!" She said staring at Harry with that expression she used when something was painfully obvious to her regardless of whether it was obvious to everyone else. Harry was just more confused at this.

"Do you remember _exactly_ what Snape said when he told you why Dumbledore sent them here?" Hermione was adamant so Harry rummaged through his memory for it.

"I think he said…'They were sent here to be protected by the very thing that has protected you in the past.' Or something to that effect."

"I thought it was something like that. And what, pray tell Harry, has protected you in the past?" Hermione's voice was prompting him, he knew that. She was trying to get him to figure it out himself.

"Well, the connection to my family, my mother's death. But unless they were living under the same roof as me I don't see how those could…" Hermione cut him off.

"Of course you thought about that! That is what Snape _wanted_ you think. It was actually a brilliant move on his part, revenge for getting out of his general rule about NEWTs. Oh come on Harry you can't be this blunt!"

Then it hit him. It was as Hermione had said, totally obvious, so obvious in fact that his brain had totally ignored it, "The people who have been watching me all summer! Of course that's what Dumbledore meant!" Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle looked completely lost as he said this. Hermione just gave smiled at him.

"God I want to hex that git! Making us waste all this time trying to get my uncle and aunt to let them live when all we really needed to do was get them to a place where my watchers can also watch them!"

"I was wondering when you were going to figure this out." At that Albus Dumbledore apparated into the room with a slight pop, his twinkling eyes beaming. Malfoy did not look pleased at this one bit. Crabbe and Goyle froze up as soon as he appeared.

"You planned this didn't you?" Harry asked smugly.

"I didn't plan it, although I must admit that it did intrigue me when Severus brought it up. It was actually quite the plan on his part. It very well could have served both of our purposes. However, you managed to completely dodge my original intentions and come up with everything on your own."

"So what were your intentions for this?" Harry asked.

"Why to get you to stand up to your uncle of course!" Dumbledore seemed quite giddy today for reasons unknown. "Unfortunately, it didn't turn out as I planned. No matter, this is probably for the better anyway. I would hate to have to send your aunt another Howler." At that he looked toward Harry and winked. Harry smirked back remembering the anonymous Howler she had received the previous summer.

"Now for the reason I really came here. Arabella, would you mind taking in these three for the remainder of the summer? It would be a personal favor to me and it would save me a lot of effort trying to secure yet another location."

Ms. Figg nodded graciously at this smiling. "Of course," She responded.

Dumbledore then turned to Hermione, "Hermione, I know you want to spend more time with Harry this summer, since you are at home with your parents. Because it is quite impossible for him to go stay with you for obvious reasons and to save your parents the hassle of muggle transportation, I took the liberty of getting a special portkey authorized for you for the remainder of the summer. It is strictly for the purposes of visiting Mr. Potter, as I had to pull quite a few strings with the office of magical transportation to get it authorized at all." With that he handed her a small white badge.

"You activate it by tapping it quickly three times while thinking about where you want to go. This will only take you to either Ms. Figg's house or yours."

"Don't worry about waking me dear." Ms. Figg stated. "Albus has already cleared this with me and it will send you to a section of my living room which Albus has told me he has made sure will not disturb me with your arrivals."

With that Dumbledore continued, "It can be used to take multiple people simply by holding hands and forming a line, but that is only in case of extreme emergency as it has been authorized only for your use."

He then turned to Harry and said. "By the way how does it feel to be sixteen?" Harry realized that he had completely forgotten about his birthday with everything that had happened on it with Snape, Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle showing up. He felt silly about this, no matter. It wasn't like his birthdays were ever important before. Hermione on the other hand looked horrified that she had forgotten. Harry turned to her and motioned to her that they would talk about it later. After that Dumbledore turned towards the rest of them smiled and said, "I certainly hope you re prepared for your NEWTs next year. Good day to you all!" He then disapparated with a small pop.

Crabbe and Goyle let out deep breaths they had been holding as soon as Dumbledore left. Malfoy just continued sneering. Harry was certainly relieved. What could have been a very hellish nightmare for him had turned out to be a simple matter.

The rest of the day was spent getting Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle into their new accommodations. Hermione called her parents and told them that she was getting home on her own. Ms. Figg invited Harry and Hermione to eat dinner, where they spent the entire time talking about Harry's birthday while he tried to convince them that it had never really been that special before, so why make a big deal of it now? Malfoy unsurprisingly scoffed and spent the entire meal brooding silently. Hermione walked Harry home where she finally agreed to not make a big deal out of his birthday as long as he accepted that she would send him a gift. Harry also noted that the Weasleys had forgotten his birthday as well, but he thought that was probably because they were on important order business. In any case, he was kind of relieved that they hadn't done anything. The last thing he needed was another lecture from his uncle about keeping the house clear of strange owls.

That evening Harry was thinking as he lay in his bed and he realized that Dumbledore was right. He was going to have to stand up to his aunt and uncle at some point. Not throw temper tantrums, threats and hissy fits like he had previous summers, but really stand up to them. He also realized that he would have had to do it without magic, if for no other reason than to prove to himself he could. _It might even give them a little more respect for me._ He thought. _Show them that I can live without my 'unnaturalness.' Well…maybe not, but I can dream can't I?_

He smiled at the though as he drifted off to sleep.


	4. Fred and George, the Wand-erful Weasleys!

Despite his original intent to not spend the summer with the three unexpected guests, Harry found himself spending most of time at Ms. Figg's house anyway, even on days Hermione didn't show up to hang out with him, which were actually more common than not. At first he had dreaded going back there and did so only with Hermione to check on the potion. However, on one day he had gotten there earlier than Hermione he somehow ended up in a surprisingly enjoyable conversation with Crabbe about Quidditch. After that he spent more time there, mostly out of boredom, and he found that neither Crabbe nor Goyle were that bad when they weren't trying to keep up appearances or following Malfoy. It wasn't that he really became friends with them, more that they came to the silent understanding that it was pointless for them to be enemies. All three of them knew that were the situation different they would hang out with others, but Harry was sure that they at least would hold no more animosity towards each other. He had even became on a first name basis with them at some point, so in his head they had eternally become Vincent and Gregory rather than Crabbe and Goyle, names reserved for their Death Eater parents.

Malfoy, on then other hand, had not managed to get on his good side over the summer, as he remained the same git he always was. No, it wasn't that Malfoy was any different really, it was Harry who had changed. Somewhere along the line in his inevitable run-ins with Malfoy during his dealings with Vincent and Gregory, his previous anger had turned to pity. He realized that Malfoy wasn't putting on a front or even acting smug because he thought he was better than everyone else, at least not exactly. Harry realized that he acted like that because it was the only way he knew how to act. There was no underlying him that he tried to keep hidden from others. Oh he had secrets no doubt, and things he didn't want known, but Harry had never seen anything from Malfoy that led him to believe that he had an inner self. The selfish aristocratic boy was exactly who and what he was. He didn't think he was better then others because there was no thought process there at all, he just knew that he was. With a father like Lucius Malfoy, Harry wasn't surprised in the least. So Harry realized that hating Malfoy for being who he was would be like him hating Hermione for being smart or Ron for having red hair, and any anger he had left at that point had melted and turned into pity.

It had actually worked to both their advantages. Without his former anger towards the boy, Harry no longer had any reason to respond to his pointless taunts. After realizing that there was no one there to share them with, as there was nothing really new about any of them and Vincent and Gregory were flat out bored of hearing them, he had simply stopped saying them altogether. It also didn't hurt that Vincent and Gregory seemed to grow less and less scared of him as the summer rolled on and their parents became ever more of a memory. Malfoy had eventually given in to his loneliness and grudgingly joined in on their conversations. And even though he still disliked interacting with Harry in any way, he seemed a bit less unhappy not being completely left out.

Even Hermione had noticed the changes in Harry's relationships with Malfoy, Vincent and Gregory. At first she was resistant to Malfoy's former Lackeys, but eventually Vincent asked her for help on studying for one of his planned NEWT classes and that had broken the ice between them, leaving Malfoy even more annoyed at his lack of control of the situation. Malfoy still called her mudblood and refused to seriously consider her at all, but she could care less at that point, having experienced it for the last five years at school anyway. It was like this that the five of them had managed to coexist for the remaining summer days.

Hermione had kept her promise and not made a big deal about his party. However, she had gotten him an extended coin purse to keep his money in. Her reasoning being that he needed something practical rather then fun given the times. Harry had thanked her and that was the last they spoke of his sweet sixteen.

All five students got their NEWTs sign up sheets within days of each other and Harry and Hermione had spent the next few days trying to decide what to take (Malfoy Vincent and Gregory had gone off to do the same). Ron had owled them telling them his five choices of Care of Magical Creatures, Charms, Transfiguration, Defense against the Dark Arts and to Harry's surprise Herbology. As they expected, Ron hadn't gotten a high enough Potions Owl to get into Snape's NEWT class and Snape hadn't given him a second chance, so he wouldn't be joining them there. Ron's letter had said that he had not only gotten a really high E on his care of magical creatures Owl, 'Can't forget much about things you are scared to death of' his letter had said, but after spending a few weeks with Charlie, who as far as Harry knew still worked with Dragons in Romania, he had gotten over his fear of most magical beasts (giant spiders excluded of course) and found that without it he rather liked many of them. He did admit that it had taken Charlie a bit of effort to get him to change his mind in some cases, especially after Hagrid's examples. Herbology, Ron had said, was incredibly useful when working with animals, especially if one wasn't so great with potions.

Harry had noticed quite a few more specialized classes while he was looking through the NEWTs selection that had not been available at the OWL level, including Healing, Curse Breaking, Invocation, and the oddball Psionics (the magic of the mind, and something Harry hadn't ever heard of before). Harry had decided on Care of Magical Creatures, Defense against the Dark Arts, Charms, Transfiguration, Herbology and, of course, Potions, giving him a hefty workload of six NEWTs rather than his required five but were also largely classes he enjoyed. Hermione, as Harry expected, had chosen to take almost every NEWT in the book: Her complete list was Care of Magical Creatures, Charms, Transfiguration, History of Magic, Theory of Magic, Psionics, Potions, Defense against the Dark Arts, Ancient Runes, Healing, Herbology, and Arithmancy. Harry wasn't sure how she intended to take all those classes without a time turner, but Hermione was positive that she had worked out a schedule and knowing that she was not one to be deterred once she put her mind to something, Harry just let her obsessive studious nature be.

Before long, it was time for them all to go to Diagon Alley for school supplies and the remaining ingredients for the polyjuice potion. Harry had gotten an owl from Dumbledore a few days previous telling him that Hermione, Malfoy, Vincent and Gregory were going to be sent there separately and that he was to meet a member of the Order today in his room who would accompany him directly to the Leaky Cauldron by means of a Portkey. He would rendezvous with Hermione, Malfoy, Vincent and Gregory there and then they would all go together to Gringotts where they were to meet Bill Weasley who would give Harry his key.

Harry had not been told who this member of the order was although, he was expecting Lupin or Moody. Tonks was too conspicuous with her tendency to knock random things over and almost everyone else probably had assignments elsewhere. What he had not expected was a Weasley twin apparating inches in front of him wearing pajamas and a Santa hat. "George?" Harry exclaimed.

"Actually I'm Fred. But who's counting?" Fred said sarcastically.

"What are you doing here? I thought I was being meeting an order member?" Harry was thoroughly confused. Fred had appeared at the exact time Dumbledore had told them to meet, but he knew that Molly would never let the twins join the order in a million years. She'd go directly to even Dumbledore and yell at him until he gave in. She was a very protective mother.

"Actually, I am." Fred said. "Although between you and me…it was hell trying to get in. Mum was against the whole thing of course…and wouldn't let anyone get a word in edgewise on our behalf. We were lucky that we had gone to the initiation meeting that we did…because it was all about…well…you."

Harry was about to say ask why Fred kept pausing but Fred continued and cut him off.

"He had intended on making the Order a bit more known at Hogwarts this year, since it could be official and such, and he wanted an order member selected as your personal bodyguard for whenever you were at Hogwarts or well…anywhere else for that matter. He looked directly at us when he said this...so we took the quite obvious hint and volunteered. Mum tried to throw a hissy fit...but Dumbledore insisted that our only job would be to stay with you and protect you at all times. Of course she wasn't going to argue with 'Protecting Harry Potter' even though she was still adamant that this be our only job. He then went on to say that to would be easier this way anyway...since we technically didn't finish last year there would be a lot less paperwork to fill out to allow us to come to school to stay. In fact he insinuated that the only real paperwork would be holding us back a year so that we could stay in your dormitory. Of course mum tried to stop this as well...but you know Dumbledore. So now you won't have some old twit like Moody or Shacklebolt watching your every move. You'll be able to get into the same old mischief you're used too...and the best part is we'll actually be able to go along this time!"

Harry had to laugh at Fred's excitement and constant pausing, which Harry realized was because he was without his twin, something that Harry thought felt weird. And although he was happy to have personal guards who would give him some leeway, he wasn't exactly happy that he needed a personal guard at all. There was also one more very important thing. "You know Fred, this isn't a game or anything. I have a tendency to get into incredibly serious and dangerous situations and I don't think I could live with myself if I led you to one of these and then you got hurt or worse. Especially if that was because you didn't take it seriously enough."

Fred's face leveled into an expression of serious ferocity that Harry didn't know the Weasley twins even had as he said, "I know. And we take this job incredibly seriously. You are a brother to us and we will not let you be hurt anymore then we would allow someone to hurt Ginny, Ron, or even Hermione. It wasn't just about you, we assumed that we would also end up guarding them too." Harry noticed that Fred didn't pause during that speech. After that Fred's ferocity instantly dropped to his more normal smile. "But in the mean time why not have fun? After all, why not make everything fun I always say…or maybe I don't…oh well!"

Harry laughed again and that reminded him of the money he gave the twins two years ago and the joke shop they funded with it. "What about your shop? How do you intend to run that and guard me at the same time?"

"Blimey Harry!" Fred exclaimed. "We both don't have to always be near you at the same time! Besides, Lee Jordon is much better at Arithmancy then we are anyway. We immediately signed him on as a full fledged partner as soon as we could. And of course we told him about the Order and about our assignment to you. He doesn't want to see you get hurt any more than we do, so he keeps up the shop, which is doing quite well by the way, we keep up you, and everything works out in the end!"

Fred then, apparently tired of standing around talking, launched a mini Wildfire Whiz-Bang right into the room and they watched it until it burnt out a few minutes later. Harry was half afraid that he would get another letter from the Ministry for underage magic, but it was too cool for that thought to stay for any amount of time.

"Oops, look at the time we're late!" Fred said. Then he quickly pulled out his wand, transfigured his pajamas into robes. "And were off!" He continued, before quickly taking off his Santa hat and shoving it on Harry's head, activating the portkey taking them to the Leaky Cauldron.

When they finally stopped spinning, Harry couldn't see a thing because Fred had shoved the hat down over his eyes. He heard a few laughs he somewhat recognized before Fred snatched the hat away and put it back on hid head. Hermione, Vincent and Gregory were snickering in his direction while Malfoy smirked triumphantly. The portkey had taken them to be standing directly on the bar, conveniently where there were not people to step on, but also in view of pretty much everybody in the room. Fred flamboyantly curtsied before jumping to the floor. Harry just climbed off the bar, his face slightly warmer from embarrassment.

"Well, you'll be okay in Diagon Alley and I really need to go check on something. Be sure to stop by Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes before you leave! You'll recognize it as the store with the large number of shoppers inside, and well, outside. I've still got the portkey to take you home!" Fred pointed towards the Santa hat, "So you can't forget!" After that, he disapparated, with a dramatic billow of his robe and a large bang that resounded the room. Harry then realized that Fred had barely made any noise when he had apparated into his room and again wondered just how powerful the twins actually were, and what they could accomplish if they actually put their minds to it.

"So, to Gringotts then? Or should I sit on your lap and ask what list I'm on?" Harry was surprised that it was Hermione who had said that and not one of the other three. _Apparently her friendship with Ginny was rubbing off on her,_ he thought as everyone, even Malfoy, laughed.

"Okay then lets go." Harry said as he led them all out to the wall out back and tapped the brick he knew opened the way to Diagon Alley. He would never forget that brick after being confined to the Leaky Cauldron and Diagon Alley the last week before his third year.

As soon as Harry looked through the newly opened gate he noticed a change in the demeanor of the once exciting place. He had not had a chance to go here since that week his third year and it appeared that while the shops remained the same, the mood of the alley was a lot more gloomy then he had remembered. Wizards were traveling in groups, some with their wands out, and he could see quite a few Hogwarts students walking with muggle looking adults, their wands at the ready for the slightest sign of Danger. This was the way things were for the entire walk to Gringotts. A few of the shop keepers and other people he recognized waved to him but for the most part people were too busy making sure it was safe to notice them. In light of this, it was incredibly obvious which shop was Fred and George's, simply because it was the only shop in the alley that had a group of people in front of it, and also the only place where there was any sort of laughter.

Gringotts itself seemed to have stepped up its security. Not only was there a second goblin at the door ushering people in, there was also a witch and a wizard standing guard by the entrance. Harry noticed they had no insignias of the ministry of magic and was glad of that. He remembered what the ministry had tried with him and he didn't want to see the wizards' bank having anything to do with them while Fudge was minister.

They had to wait in a line outside the building and then be checked one by one by both the security wizard and witch as well as the two goblins before they were allowed inside, and once Harry had passed the security check, he saw that the inside of the bank had barely changed. It was still the bustling place he had always seen. Bill Weasley was standing in the middle of the foyer talking with one of the taller Goblins. Harry waited for Hermione to pass the check and then they both walked up to Bill. Malfoy, Vincent and Gregory had been checked before the two of them and were waiting by the wall, looking uncomfortable.

"Hello Harry!" Bill looked pretty much the same as he always had. He was wearing a different earring that was in the shape of a unicorn and the length of his ponytail had slightly increased, but that wasn't even a very noticeable change. He looked to be wearing a rather official looking robes and he still had on his ever apparent dragon skin boots.

"I have your key right here." He produced a key form somewhere in his robes, handed it to Harry and then turned his attention to Hermione. "You have some Muggle money to get exchanged right Hermione?" Hermione nodded then produced some bills. "Okay then, I'll help you get that done after I get these four settled." At that he motioned for Malfoy, Vincent and Gregory, who reluctantly came to where Harry, Hermione and Bill were talking in the center of the foyer.

"Harry, here is a letter from Dumbledore about getting these three their required materials. You remember how this works right? After all you were here with Hagrid your first year?" He then winked at Harry in a very Weasley manner before handing him a letter with Dumbledore's signet. "Oh and sorry we didn't catch your birthday. We figured you would rather not have a bunch of hurried letters so we decided to wait and maybe hold a party for you at some other time. I for one would rather just get you a gift and skip the whole party thing. I think you would probably agree?" Harry smiled and nodded. And with that Bill left with Hermione to get her money exchanged.

Assuming that the other three boys had in fact been here before and knew how this worked Harry walked up to one of the goblins behind the front desk and said. "Hello, I would like to make a withdrawal please."

"Name," The goblin said without looking at him.

"Harry Potter." Harry responded.

The goblin then looked at him sternly and said, "And I trust that you have your key Mr. Potter?"

"Yes." Harry said handing it to the goblin. "And there's one more thing." He said placing the letter from Dumbledore that Bill had just handed to him on the desk. "These three need some of the stuff from you know which vault for you know what." He then handed the goblin the letter.

He quickly looked it over and then said, "Very well. This way please," before leading the three of them to the cart and the vaults below.

Malfoy seemed shocked when he saw the amount of galleons piled in Harry's Vault. It appeared that Malfoy had not expected Harry to have quite as much as he did.

After gathering a fairly large number of galleons, sickles and knuts into his new extended Money pouch, the three of them were led down to vault 888 by the goblin. Harry recognized it as the same type of vault that the Philosopher's stone had been in and cautioned the others not to touch it as the goblin went over and opened it up. Harry had not expected what was behind it. The entire thing was packed to the brim with neatly stacked coins that went from the floor of the vault to somewhere above the frame of the door. It looked like a wall of coins right behind the door. He would not want to be the person trying to steal that. The goblins would be cleaning a bloody stain off the coins rather than removing a corpse. The others looked just as shocked as Harry felt. The Goblin then levitated three small piles of galleons, sickles and knuts before closing the vault and saying. "Okay here are the 45 galleons, 45 sickles and 45 knuts I am supposed to remove for you. It says here that fifteen of each coin is to go to each of you three." The goblin said as he again looked at Dumbledore's note.

"We're supposed to buy our entire year's supplies with 15 galleons 15 sickles and 15 knuts!" Malfoy looked horrified at this idea. Harry knew it was possible. He had seen Ms. Weasley buy supplies for all her children on significantly less his second year. It was the first time he really understood exactly why Ron was so touchy about his parents lack of wealth.

The goblin did not respond to this, he merely separated the three piles into nine smaller piles before taking out three small bags and putting a pile of galleons, sickles and knuts in each bag. He then handed one of the bags to each of Malfoy, Vincent and Gregory before heading back to the cart. Harry couldn't help but smile at Malfoy's shocked expression. It was down right hilarious that Malfoy thought of this as a pitiful sum of money when he knew for a fact that Ron would kill to have that much money to spend on only himself.

The trip back up to the main foyer was just as bumpy as ever, and Harry was glad when he saw Bill and Hermione waiting calmly in the middle of the big room. "Hello," Bill said before turning to Malfoy Vincent and Gregory. "I have been asked by Dumbledore to take you three shopping as he assumes you have never had to spend thriftily before." Bill said, a not so genuine smile on his face. Malfoy on the other hand was anything but happy. Not only did he have to get his supplies on what must have been pocket change to him before, but to be taught how to shop by a Weasley? He could imagine the taunts if that got out at school. He'd have to remember that if Malfoy became too much of a git again. Vincent and Gregory didn't seem as shocked, though neither of them looked too pleased either.

Harry and Hermione left the bank together towards Flourish and Blotts while Bill took Malfoy, Vincent, and Gregory towards Madam Malkin's, since it was obvious they needed new robes. Harry hadn't grown noticeably at all and he wasn't sure if he would ever need larger robes than the ones he had. Hermione had grown a lot and was now noticeably taller then him, but apparently she had somehow already gotten her new Hogwarts robes, so Madam Malkin's was not a stop for either of them. Harry was fine with this because he didn't really feel like standing around to get measured again anyway.

After getting the books for their NEWTs and looking at quite a few others books that Hermione had either not seen before because they were new or newer printing of books she already had, they went to the apothecary and got the supplies they needed for school and the remaining supplies for the polyjuice potion, as Hermione had managed to get all the rarer ingredients from Dumbledore. After that, they stopped for lunch then wandered the alley buying the rest of their supplies, paper, quill's and the like before stopping at Quality Quidditch Supplies so Harry could stock up on polish for his broom cleaning set and get a set of silver practice snitches that were enchanted to return to the owner when called so that they could be practiced with more efficiently. They were silver so that they couldn't be used in a normal game and thus couldn't be used to cheat. He also got a new pair of gloves. He wasn't sure he'd actually be using this stuff after the previous year, but not having it felt wrong, so he got it anyway. They finally ended up dropping their bags off in a room Harry paid for at the Leaky Cauldron so they wouldn't have to carry it around.

Next they decided to head to Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes, but were pleasantly interrupted on the way. "Hello. I was wondering whether you'd be here. Dumbledore had said that you were coming today." Harry could not be more pleased to hear Ron's voice. Now Ron was something else entirely and now Harry almost had to strain his neck to look in his face. Ron, already being tall for his age seemed to have hit a growth spurt over the summer and was now even taller then Gregory. Harry wondered where he had gotten this from as neither one of his parents were all that tall. In fact, they were both built a little more like the twins, not exactly short, but more average and slightly stocky. Bill and Percy (he shuddered as he thought of the one Weasley who he greatly disliked) were built more like Ron, but not nearly as tall, while Charlie was the average one lumped in the middle. Harry didn't know where Ginny fell because she was the only girl in the family and her build was nothing like her mother's.

"Sorry we're late. Mum made me and Ginny finish degnoming the garden before we could come. It had gotten dreadful with all the moving and stuff. We told her we might miss you, but she wouldn't budge, saying that we would still meet on the train and that it would just be more work later if we let it be." Despite this Ron was smiling obviously happy to see his two best friends.

"It's okay Ron." Harry said. "Though, we're done with our Shopping. We were heading off to Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes to see what the twins have been up to."

"Bloody brilliant is what it is." Ron said. "I have been there many times and just looked around. They really have invented a lot of stuff that is really great.” He paused for a moment before continuing, “I have to go get new robes."

"I can see that. You have really grown since I last saw you." Hermione said as she looked up at Ron.

"Yeah, I hit two meters tall this August. It's a pain really. Not only were the growing pains horrid, but I needed a completely new wardrobe within a few weeks of starting summer."

Despite what Ron said, Harry found himself jealous of him. Whereas Ron had grown immensely tall, Harry had remained incredibly short. He wished he could have grown at least a bit over the summer. He quickly snapped himself out of that train of thought, realizing how silly it was. Ron could no more control his growth than Harry. Harry realized that as much as he must be straining his neck to look up at Ron, Ron must also be straining to look down at him. He then laughed for seemingly no reason earning a confused look from both Ron and Hermione.

"What's so funny?" Ron asked.

"I was just thinking that now probably the tallest kid and the shortest kids in our year are now best friends."

Hermione and Ron laughed at that too before Ron said. "Hey, look at it this way. Maybe people will stop staring at the 'Boy Who Lived' and start staring at the immensely tall Weasley freak of nature standing next to him?" At that the three of them laughed again and Harry wondered how he had ever lived without his two best friends.

"Well, I'm gonna go get measured and Madam Malkin's, see ya later." He said. Harry saw Arthur, Molly and Ginny standing a few feet away and he was glad that they had let him, Ron and Hermione have their little reunion undistracted.

They waved at him and he heard Molly say "Be careful dearies!"

He then heard Ginny say. "See ya on the Hogwarts Express!"

Despite the grim mood of the Alley and the fact that everyone seemed to be on guard, Harry and Hermione had a giddy air between them after the meeting with the Weasleys, and all they talked about as they walked towards Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes was how much Ron had changed over the summer. "I still can't believe he got that tall over one summer!" Harry said, "I feel shorter than ever before now." He said his giddiness leveling off slightly.

"Oh Harry, don't think being short is bad. Look at it this way, you haven't lost your seeker's edge." The fact that Hermione had tried cheer him up by mentioning quidditch (something she had never really been attracted to) made him immensely happier with himself.

"Oh what would you know about being a good seeker!" Harry teased.

"Well, you aren't the only one present when Ron goes on about it. Honestly, I could probably name all the national teams and their players and I have only ever been to that one professional match." Harry laughed, knowing exactly what Hermione meant. Ron had been borderline obsessed with quidditch as long as Harry had known him.

"Did you see the slight red fuzz on his chin? It's so obvious that he's started shaving! I personally think he should keep his face clean." Hermione was talking quickly and giddily.

"I agree." Harry said. "That way I won't be the only Gryffindor boy in our year who looks like a little kid."

Hermione looked at him about to console him again when she saw the sarcastic look on his face. "Well be glad you still look like you do. You'll probably look twenty your entire life. And that Harry Potter, is nothing to be ashamed about." That made them both laugh again as they tuned the corner and saw the crowd around Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes. A Santa hat told Harry that Fred was ushering people in a few at a time as he hovered a few feet off the ground on a broomstick.

They were about to stand in line when Fred noticed them and flew to them over the crowd. "Wow." Was all Harry could say when he noticed that Fred was riding a Firebolt.

"Where did you get that?" Hermione asked. Harry heard George take Fred's place ushering, and sure enough, he was not wearing the hat that Harry knew was also his returning portkey.

"Oh, we made a lot more then we thought this summer and we both thought we would treat ourselves to a self serving delight. Firebolts seemed like the perfect thing. But honestly, why are you waiting in line? You know we can't keep our best brother's best friends waiting!" And with that Fred scooted forward leaving room on the broom for Harry and Hermione who he then ferried across the crowd of people to the front gate.

Surprisingly, no one seemed to care that they were getting preferential treatment from the twins. Of course Harry and Hermione recognized most of them as Hogwarts students and they wouldn't be surprised at this one bit. Harry waved to Justin Finch-Fletchley as he flew past, who waved back, and he heard Seamus Finnigan yell, "Hey Harry save some for us will ya!" from somewhere in the crowd.

"Well look around and see what you like. Harry here just needs to talk to us to get stuff. Hermione, sorry but we're going to have to charge you for anything you want. I hope you understand." Hermione looked at him evenly with a smile on her face. Harry had told her last year that he had been the one to finance the shop with his tri-wizard tournament winnings and it looked like she was not surprised in the least by this statement.

As Harry looked around, he could see why the twins were doing so well. They had the Wildfire Whiz-Bangs and all the treats and other things they had described last year at school as well as countless new things that Harry had never seen before. The portable swamp now had more complex and varied versions including a portable beach (complete with salt water), portable rain forest (not recommended indoors), portable desert (beware of dehydration) and the incredibly odd portable rainbow plains which create a flat plain of almost normal grass that shines with rainbow colors. The food section had been increased considerably and there were now other things besides candies, including a precooked turkey that squirms to avoid blades and a bar that turns into a salad if you wave the right wand at it. There was a bottomless mug where the bottom disappears and the drink falls out (a simple trick but he could imagine it being useful) and a discus that hovers on its own and dodges all hands but the ones that released it. The fake wands were back in full force and it seemed that they had new versions that turned into increasingly weirder things. Harry even thought he saw one that turned into a small ant eater but he couldn't really be sure.

Eventually, Ron, Seamus, Dean, and Neville were let in. At this, Fred and George left Lee and a boy and girl who Harry didn't recognize to run the shop while they gathered the new entries as well as Justin, Ernie Macmillan, and Padma Patil (where Parvati was Harry had no idea) and brought them to the back room of the shop one by one. It did not escape Harry's notice that all of these people were members of the DA from the previous year (with the semi exception of Seamus who had only actually been to one meeting).

The back room was much less grand than the main shop area. It had a simple work area on one side of the room with a filing cabinet and a desk and a small lab on the other side that didn't look that much more complicated than a muggle chemistry lab (although Harry was sure it had many more uses).

Fred and George gathered all the intrigued DA members together before starting to talk.

"We have brought all of you back here…" George started.

"Because we have created a few things…" Fred continued

"That we think might be very helpful…" George stated.

"For everyone involved in any conflict against a certain dark lord." And Fred finished.

At that everyone started murmuring nervously.

"We know as well as you do that it is likely…"

"Especially with Harry here…" At that, Fred pointed pulled Harry next to him in with his arm and held him there.

"That Hogwarts will not be a very safe place this year."

"With that in mind, we have created something that we like to call Wand-derful Weasleys' spread spell wands." At that both twins pulled a lot of small stubby wands with normal sized handles out of their robes and handed them to everybody.

"These wands are useable with almost any spell and they will spread a spells effect greatly. Whether it be cursing the entire Slytherin table in one go or stunning a group of attacking death eaters, these are the way to go." They both finished together dramatically.

Then they split up and started showing everyone individually how they work. Fred showed Harry first. "They don't work on their own, you have to use them with your regular wand. When you cast the spell you want to spread, hold the spread spell wand next to your regular wand at the handle like this." Fred arranged Harry's hands around his wand and the spread spell wand. "Say 'Omnus' before you cast the spell and then wave it across the area you want to effect." At that he pointed his own wand at some quills in a cup on the table and said, "Omnus Accio Quill!" the quills all flew out of the cup to his hands. "And that's that."

"The spell itself will be a lot weaker as the effect is spread and to our knowledge and testing that is the only problem. I personally still wouldn't recommend using them except in the worst of circumstances though, as it took a lot of testing to get them to stop exploding in our faces." Despite what Fred said, Harry realized just how useful this little thing could be. He wasn't about to be stupid and use it with reckless abandon, but he was sure that this would come in handy at some point.

After describing how it worked to all the people there and providing each of them who wanted one, which was everybody, with a free sample, the group returned to the shop which Lee had already started to close down. The rest of the customers had been shoed off and only the few of them remained in the store.

"And now you all get free reign to purchase whatever you want without others getting in your way. It's the least we can do for our fellow soldiers of Dumbledore. And now we can give you the discount we planned from the beginning for being so great!"

Lee smiled at them and stood behind the cash register while George wandered the store with the other excited students. Fred, who was still wearing that silly Santa hat, stuck with Harry as he picked up a few things. Each time he did, Fred made a mark on the scroll he was holding, presumably an inventory. Harry didn't really take much. He didn't see much use for a lot of it as he had no intentions of playing any jokes on people. He more picked the things that could help him escape a death eater attack, and some things he thought were simply amusing.

When he, Fred and Hermione left the Shop to head back to the Leaky Cauldron, his bag from their shop contained a few boxes of Wildfire Whiz-Bangs, a few portable swamps and deserts, a portable beach, a portable rainbow plains (just because), a few fake wands (never know when those could come in handy), an invisible head hat for Ron to wear when they use the invisibility cloak (who was much too tall to use it without hunching over very uncomfortably), a bottomless mug and a few Skiving Snackboxes (just in case) which he had made sure to keep from Hermione.

When they reached the Leaky Cauldron, they found Bill Weasley drinking butterbeer with Vincent, Gregory, and a still very annoyed Malfoy. After saying good night to them, Harry and Hermione went upstairs to get their things from their rooms. Hermione then said goodbye to Harry and Fred before tapping her badge three times activating the portkey to her house.

"Here you go." Fred said, "This will take you directly to your room at the Dursleys. Be sure to be careful for the next few days. And either me, George or both of us will be back to pick you up and portkey with you to platform nine and three quarters on the first."

"I take it I activated it by shoving it down over my eyes?" Harry asked smirking.

"Good study. Yes, that is exactly how you trigger it! In any case I have to get home, Mum will be expecting us and I do hope to get some of her nice food tonight." with that Fred disapparated leaving Harry by himself in the room.

Harry was sure to grab all of his stuff (which was a lot) to make sure it went along with him (a daunting task) and then used his left hand to pull the hat down over his eyes. In an instant and a slight pull of his abdomen he was back in his room at number 4 privet drive with a pile of school supplies and random stuff to organize and put away. _Should have bought an enlarged trunk,_ Harry thought, _Oh well, I'll think of something._ Then he began moving things around so they were at least out of the way.


	5. The Order On the Express

Harry did not see a lot of Hermione, Malfoy, Vincent or Gregory the last few days of August before they were scheduled to go to the station. He and Hermione met at Ms. Figg's house so Harry could mix the potion. It was quite amusing, as they had each decided to test the potion by turning into each other. It had worked perfectly, so for that hour they had a lot of fun confusing and annoying Malfoy (who was also aware that they had finished the potion) with random banter. After that, Hermione bottled the potion in a large flask she had brought from home and then they spent the entire rest of the afternoon goofing off.

Harry had very carefully packed the potion in his trunk, wrapping it in a large shirt with holes in it that was useless as anything but a rag. After putting that in the back corner of his truck and making sure it wouldn't move around by piling heavy books around and on top of it (Hermione had assured him that it wouldn't break unless it was hit against something rather hard and had suggested that he do just that as the flask getting crushed was unlikely).

Harry hadn't wanted to give Snape ANY reason to go back on his word, so he had done all his summer work and gone over it twice making sure that it was completely and thoroughly finished. In the spare time he had finished his other homework as well, though it was not nearly as neat and detailed as his potions work, something that, to his knowledge, had never been true before. Harry was determined to get the highest NEWT possible in potions just to prove to Snape that he could do it. It was a matter of pride now. Harry knew that regardless of the circumstances, Snape had gone out on a limb for him. Despite his dislike for the man, he was not going to make that a mistake. He wouldn't ruin Snape's day by doing mediocre his class and being a git to him like he had been in the past. He would ruin it by succeeding and giving that bastard no reason to be a git to him. Harry could think of no better punishment for Snape then a succeeding Harry Potter in one of his hardest classes for two whole years. It was perfect, and it didn't require anything of Harry other than what he should have been doing in that class all along anyway. He felt quite a bit happier with himself and life in general then he had felt all summer, and funnily enough, he had Snape to thank for that.

Harry was up before anyone else in the house without being woken up by something (another thing he couldn't remember ever being) and was ready to go quite quickly. He had even taken a very long and refreshing shower where he got himself as clean as he possibly could and cleaned Hedwig's cage (it had grown incredibly rank over the summer). So when the Weasley twins finally arrived to pick him up, he was completely ready to go. In fact, he had been waiting not so patiently for over two hours.

"Where have you been?" Harry asked in mock anger when the two redheads appeared in his room, both of them wearing pajamas. "You are after all," he looked at his bedside clock. "22 seconds late." He smirked.

Fred and George smiled at him with amused expressions. "Well, Fred here thought we'd make an entrance… Didn't work too well did it?" George said as he stepped up towards Harry smiling. Harry noticed that George had a more innocent smile then Fred did. Fred's looked more mischievous like a conniving two year old. George's smile looked a lot more like a small boy simply happy with life.

"No not particularly. But that's okay, I'm sure you'll do better next time." Harry's voice held a sarcastic tone. He was glad that the twins had not in fact left the school completely even if they were only there now to protect him. He didn't really realize until then just how much less fun Gryffindor tower would be without them.

"Ok, well then. You know the drill with the portkey, so I don't need to explain that." George absentmindedly sat next to Harry on his bed while Fred spoke. "The three of us go to the station using the portkey you still have."

"The Santa hat is still a portkey?" Harry was surprised.

"Now it is again, Dumbledore himself made it. Apparently it had a contingent charm to re-enchant itself to send people to platform nine and three quarters. Don't ask me how it works." George seemed truly perplexed as he said this. Fred looked less perplexed and more intrigued.

"Well as I was saying." Fred continued, apparently he was happy to have the floor at the moment. "After we port there, George will accompany you on the train."

Harry blinked, "You sure made a big deal of just saying that." He mused.

"Fred's like that you know, making big deals out of everything." George smiled as he ragged on his twin.

"I noticed." Harry said, again noticing their slight personality differences that seemed more glaringly apparent then they ever really did before. George was certainly the more down to earth of the two, Fred the more eccentric. Although they both seemed to have a certain dramatic flair about them.

"I DO NOT!" Fred said comically as he, obviously purposely, tripped and fell over in mock surprise.

"Point taken," Harry responded pointedly, "and proven," he continued, amused at Fred's antics.

"You know I would rather watch this, but the train leaves the station soon. So unless you want to walk to Hogwarts from here, I recommend we leave soon." George sounded odd saying this, too Hermione like. Then again, Hermione was sounding very much more Weasley twin like, so he supposed it made sense.

"Ok, let's go then." Fred transfigured his pajamas into robes as he said this and George followed suit as Fred reached for the Santa hat on Harry's bedside table. The three of them gathered Harry's stuff together between them then took the sides of the hat. Fred tried to shove it on Harry's head, but Harry was faster and managed to shove the hat down on Fred's head instead. He knew George had to have helped him do this as he knew there was no way he could have overpowered Fred on his own. His lips curled into a smile as he felt the familiar pulling sensation on his naval.

It was odd appearing directly on the wizard platform. Every other year Harry had entered through the wall in the station. Except of course, his second year, where Dobby had sealed the platform and he and Ron had taken Arthur's enchanted car and had that unfortunate run in with that Womping willow. Of course, had they not taken the car, they would have been eaten by a family of giant spiders. Getting a lecture from Ms. McGonagall and Snape was much preferable to that, even if they had missed Ginny's sorting.

The platform itself, much like Diagon Alley, looked a lot more hustled. There were a lot more people then he remembered seeing before. Parents hugged and said goodbye to their children nervously and members of the Order of the Phoenix were guarding the platform. There were at least four members present, as they had taken a defensive posture around the point he Fred and George had appeared in. Immediately to his left was the slightly old looking clothed Remus Lupin, although he wore a sash covering the lower part of his face, leaving only his eyes and now shorter hair visible. Harry recognized his eyes immediately, that and he had winked at Harry as soon as he had looked in his direction. Harry was sure that the sash was because Remus was a werewolf and the Order didn't want a massive panic from everyone their first day back. On his right was Mad Eye Moody, who Harry knew could see him at any particular moment do to his magical eye, which at first had freaked him out and then he simply found quite nauseating. He looked mostly the same, scars and everything. Back to his left was Bill Weasley, who smiled and waved his wandless hand at him then returned to his original alert state. To his right flank was Kingsley Shacklebolt, a tall dark skinned wizard who Harry had met only a few times, but who he knew was a very good Auror and one of the best people for keeping him and everyone else safe. Harry was a bit disappointed at not seeing Nymphadora Tonks there, as she had been the more amusing of his advance guard from last year. He still wished he was a metamorphmagus so he could hide his scar. _I wonder what her assignment is?_ He asked himself, knowing full well that she would be here at his side chattering with him if she didn't have one.

Kingsley spoke first, "I take it there was no trouble than?" He said looking towards Harry, Fred and George. Kingsley had always had a deep calming voice despite his serious demeanor.

"Nope. The Dursleys didn't even make a peep." George responded.

"And we were so looking forward to shocking the bajeezes out of them too!" Fred complained as he removed the Santa hat from his eyes. Remus, Harry and Bill laughed while George smiled and shrugged unimpressively. Harry could tell that despite George's nonchalant demeanor, he had hoped that would happen as well.

Kingsley just raised an eyebrow and smirked. Everyone in the Order had to know of Fred and George's antics. They were legendary at school.

"You remembered to keep your wands out of your pants pockets and to bring your own snacks right?" Mad Eye hadn't turned at all and was still covering the platform with his wand, although Harry was sure that his magical eye was looking in their direction.

"I doubt that the staff on the express would try and poison the students, especially with us on board." Remus said calmly.

"Well, with polyjuice potions and the like one can never be too careful. We must remember…CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" Moody had always been a bit on the more paranoid side, and a bit senile as well, but no one could deny his skill as an Auror. And Harry thought that after being tricked by Voldemort the previous two years, he pushed back a slight surge of anger at that thought, paranoia was not beyond reason.

"Well, I'll meet you guys at school." Fred said as he bowed and shoved the Santa hat on Harry's head. "One more thing. Dumbledore said that this hat is a special portkey he made just for you Harry, if you shove it down over your eyes and then think of either the Leaky Cauldron or your dorm at Hogwarts, it will take you there. He wanted to be sure you could escape if the school was attacked." At that he stepped back and disapparated with a small pop.

"You're all going on the train to guard me?" Harry asked slightly mortified. "You already have a personal guardian for me. I'm not just some helpless kid. I can take care of myself you know!" He felt anger rising in him and immediately suppressed it. Anger led to memories, and memories led to guilt, and that was the last thing Harry needed right now.

Remus Lupin laughed again before saying. "We know that, but were not just there to protect you. We are going on the express just in case anything happens at all. With you there and the shear number of students in general, Dumbledore didn't want to take any chances. The last thing we need would be for a flock of dementors to attack the train in our absence. We'd end up at school with a bunch of mindless corpses then what would the instructors do?"

Harry shivered at the memory of the dementor. "I see your point. Sorry, lost a hold of myself there." He apologized meekly.

"That's okay Harry, we still love you!" George's lighthearted tone calmed him a bit.

"Of course with what you have been through you would want to feel in control." Kingsley's voice was still calm and this was the only reason Harry hadn't severely blushed at the statement. "But you have to remember that regardless of the past, things can still happen and that you have to put your trust in people besides yourself especially if you want to be an Auror. Aurors need to be able to work alone, but also to have complete trust in another in order to survive." Kingsley smiled as he said this.

"Well, don't blindly trust though Potter. After all there is always Imperius to deal with." Mad Eye put in again. "Just remember: Constant Vigilance! And you will always go far." He turned and smiled at Harry too, but his magical eye was looking the other direction still keeping guard over the area. Harry had forgotten how disconcerting that eye looked like that, a white sphere encased in Moody's eye socket.

"Hey, it's nearly eleven now. We should probably head towards the train. Wouldn't want to hold everyone up now would we?" Bill stepped up from his position around Harry and prodded him and George towards the train. Remus and Moody took Harry and George's frontal flanks while Bill stood directly behind them and Kingsley wandered around them looking alert. Harry noticed that this little defensive posture around him got a lot less notice then he would have thought. He also noticed that plenty of the students that remained on the platform were acting just as defensive. Of course, most of the students were already on the train, and Harry knew he would feel a lot safer once he was in a car with his friends.

Remus and Kingsley helped carry Harry's things onto the train. After that, the four members bid Harry and George farewell and headed off in different directions. Remus and Kingsley went towards the front of the train and Moody and Bill towards the back.

Harry was about to give up the search for a car he felt comfortable sitting in when he heard Neville's familiar voice, "Hey Harry, why don't you sit here with us?” Neville, Seamus and Dean were sitting in an otherwise empty section. Neville, who seemed to be the same rotund boy he had always been just bigger now, was pruning his _mimbulus mimbletonia_ carefully while Seamus and Dean played exploding snap. Dean didn't really seem any different to Harry but then again his main feature had always been being tall, and as he was sitting down, it wasn't exactly obvious how much he had grown. Seamus seemed to have changed the most growing from an average boy to a strong riveting youth with a build not unlike the Weasley twins. Although his face, other than stubs of facial hair, looked basically the same as it always had. Harry pulled his trunk in and stored it away then sat down, earning not more then happy nods from his dorm mates. George, on the other hand got a surprised look from all of them, obviously remembering the twins' great escape from school the previous year.

"What are you doing here?" A shocked Seamus said, although he was smiling.

"Yeah, I thought you had enough of school." Dean looked more intrigued.

"Well, actually I am here to be Harry here's personal bodyguard." George said nonchalantly. "Me and Fred will be staying in your dorm and taking classes with your year."

"Cool." The three boys chorused at once. Harry realized that he had missed his dorm mates a lot. Especially Seamus, whom he had not really gotten along with for most of last year.

"Hey so what NEWTs are you guys taking?" Harry wanted to know who would be in his classes.

"Well I'm taking defense against the dark arts. I mean how could I not after being in the DA?" Dean sounded excited. "I am also taking charms and transfiguration, you know the normal stuff. And this new class called invocation that sounds interesting. Last comes care of magical creatures. Despite Hagrid's choices, I rather liked that class."

"Cool! Looks like we have a pretty similar schedule," Harry was happy he wasn't going to have all his NEWTs without at least a few familiar faces. "I have charms transfiguration, care of magical creatures, defense against the dark arts, herbology, and potions."

Seamus gasped at this and Dean did a double take, "Did you say potions?" Dean's voice rang out.

"Yep, Harry here is a regular mixing genius." George said sarcasm all over his tone. "Besides, how would the year be without constant complaining about Snape?"

"Funny." Harry said in a drawl but obviously amused tone.

"Harry! You're in NEWTs Potions too?" Harry did a double take along with everyone at the table at Neville's comment.

"You're in potions too?" Harry couldn't keep the utter shock out of his voice. He had been hoping another Gryffindor besides Hermione would be on the class with him, but he had never expected it would be Neville. "But that requires an outstanding OWL?" Harry was sure Neville hadn't made that. Neville didn't seem as nervous as he was in Snape's class, but he was far from calm.

"Yeah I know. I got an A on my potions OWL. But I expressed interest in being a Healer to my grandmother stupidly. She said that one stingy teacher should not be able to hold a child back from their dream so she went straight to the headmaster and got Snape overruled. So now I HAVE to take it because she went out of her way, despite not being asked too, and Snape has been forced to make an exception. I have no idea how I am going to pass it." Neville looked quite down. "But it IS required to be a healer, and I want to be able to help people."

"Don't worry." Harry said. "You aren't the only one here who got into NEWTs potions on a technicality. I didn't get an outstanding on my potions OWL either. And Hermione is also in the class so we should be able to pull through. What are your other NEWTs classes by the way?"

"Charms and transfiguration and of course healing, herbology and, after the DA, defense against the dark arts. I took classes I thought would be all around useful besides the ones particularly required of a healer."

"It looks like most of us are in the same classes." Seamus stated. "I have charms, transfiguration, defense against the dark arts," at this he blushed a little. Seamus had only been to one of the DA meetings last year do to he and Harry's untimely disagreement, and so was behind the rest of the people in the car on that subject, "invocation and psionics."

Everyone looked at him at that, "Psionics?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, the magic of the mind. Apparently it is a class being offered at Hogwarts this year for the first time in over a hundred years. At least that's what the description said. It sounded interesting so I figured 'why not?' after all it can't really hurt to have knowledge of that could it?"

Harry thought about his schedule again. "I imagine a lot of people are in Charms. It seems like a very useful NEWT, probably required for a lot of jobs."

"I also noticed that professor Flitwick didn't seem to have any real requirements for it either, Just that you passed your Charms OWL with an A and got at least and A on both the Practical and theoretical examinations." Dean said. "Most of the other classes required at least an E to get into. Thank goodness I managed to snake an E on most of my important OWLs. It took a lot of studying and quite a bit of effort, but it was worth it."

"Yeah me too," Seamus started, "I wonder how many people are going to be in transfiguration? I imagine quite a few. It seems quite useful, and very well suited towards living in the wizarding world in general."

"Yeah I agree." Harry continued, "It seems likely that there will be less people in the transfiguration NEWT than the charms NEWT, but I imagine that's just do to the requirements being steeper."

"I cannot believe that I got the scores I did on my OWLs." Neville chimed in. "I actually managed to get an E on my transfiguration OWL, and actually passing potions? I was incredibly shocked. I was sure I wouldn't qualify for any NEWTs at all and here I am qualified for a decent number." Despite his self chiding, Neville looked genuinely surprised in an accomplished sort of way. Harry didn't think Neville needed to feel proud about anything. He had seen him use a wand perfectly well when he wasn't thinking about it. It was only when he was trying to impress others that he really choked, although he could work on his aim. He commonly missed with curses in the DA, something many an innocent bystander could attest to.

"We knew you could do it." George said. "After all we saw you at the DA and you were great. Surprised the lot of us I'd say."

"Definitely. I always knew you lacked self esteem, but when you got over that, you were a lot more able then many others." Dean smiled in Neville's direction.

"You don't need to do this you know. I know my destructive accidents are legendary." Neville looked down at his feet, heart fallen.

"Don't do this to yourself mate. It's just not right." Seamus put his hand on Neville's shoulder.

At that point Ron and Hermione entered the car. "What'd we miss?" Ron stated looking at his dorm mates.

"We're trying to cheer up Neville. He seems to think that he doesn't deserve his OWL scores or something." George stated with a smirk. "Rubbish if you ask me, I mean how can you not deserve them? You were the one to take the test so you got the scores. It's that simple."

"Thanks." Neville looked up and smiled again. Harry was glad. Neville was always too down on himself.

"Oh Ron, we were just discussing what NEWTs we would be taking." Dean looked at Hermione. "Sorry Hermione, but I assume your taking basically every one in the book, so I'll expect to see you in all my classes anyway."

Hermione scowled at that remark and then stomped out of the car claiming she had prefect duties. Everyone in the car let out a guilty but relieved laugh. It was very clear that Hermione had greatly wanted to describe all her schedule's nuances in great detail. While interesting, Harry supposed he didn't want the entire rest of the train trip to be an explanation for why she took each NEWT when he thought it was just as likely that she simply took every NEWT she could fit into her schedule without resorting to time travel, as she had learned that lesson her third year.

"I'm taking charms, care of magical creatures, transfiguration, defense against the dark arts and herbology." Ron said in answer to Dean's question ignoring Hermione's outburst. He and Harry both knew that she would be over this in a week at the most and that they would all be back to their merry selves after their schedules had normalized.

"Looks like were all in charms, transfiguration and defense against the dark arts." Harry said happily.

"Yeah and it looked like none of us have any classes without at least one other of us." Seamus stated. "Well except for my psionics class of course, although I bet Hermione is in it too, so no loss of Gryffindor there."

"Harry what NEWTs are you taking?" Ron asked.

"Charms, care of magical creatures, transfiguration, herbology, defense against the dark arts and potions."

"That's bloody brilliant." Ron said excitedly, "You're in every one of my classes." Then recognition hit his face and yet another double take was done. "You're taking potions! With Snape!" He asked rather loudly with a very shocked tone and expression.

"Yes actually. I still plan on being an Auror." Ron's head sank at this. Apparently Ron hadn't expected Harry to continue that route without him.

"Don't think this is a bad thing Ronnikens." George started, Ron blushing at the use of his childhood nickname in front of his dorm mates. "Just go with the flow. I know I for one would feel a lot safer with Harry as an Auror protecting me from dark wizards and you at his side protecting us from those nasty giants and dragons."

Ron, still blushing, smiled at this and seemed to perk up quite a bit. "Well at least I don't have to be in that git's class anymore. You sure you're up for that?" Ron stated half seriously.

"Yeah lucky." Neville chimed in earning the room yet another double take.

"You're taking potions?" Ron looked totally shocked.

"Yeah, I was just as shocked as you are, believe me. But at least you don't have to deal with Snape anymore. He still gives me the creeps." Neville shuddered. Harry remembered that Snape was truly Neville's greatest fear, greater than even other death eaters or Voldemort himself. They had learned that their third year when they were fighting the Boggart. It was the funniest thing in the world. _Snape in an old ladies dress?_ Harry thought, _priceless, truly priceless._ His smile widened at the fond memory.

Suddenly the rest of the car's smiles disappeared. Harry had to look to see what had caused this. Malfoy was walking passed. Harry hadn't noticed. After the summer Malfoy's existence wasn't a notable threat anymore. Harry noticed that while he glanced in the room and scowled that that was the end of it.

A bunch of surprised or angry comments followed in his wake.

"He didn't call me weasel?" "Bloody I thought he was going to come in here." "That git I otta…" At this point Harry tuned them out quite tired of his friends worn out responses to the Slytherin.

"Harry, he didn't even seen to notice you. What was that about?" Seamus' voice brought him back to reality where everyone was now staring at him.

"Yeah and you didn't even seem to notice him approach. Nor even respond to him in any way." Ron seemed more angry at Harry's lack of a response to Malfoy than he seemed annoyed at Malfoy making an appearance. Malfoy's scowl was old and expected. Harry ignoring it was not and he was not looking forward to explaining that not only had Malfoy lived nearby him all summer but that he had spent most of his time in the boy's presence. George, who was well aware of this fact, remained silent.

"Just spaced I guess." Harry tried to shrug it off but they weren't buying it. _Damnit!_ He thought.

"Well actually, I really don't care about Malfoy anymore to tell you the truth." Harry said as deadpan as he could make it. This brought even more looks of shock from everyone.

"But… but… What about all the other times before!" Ron stuttered. He didn't even seem angry anymore just in total shock.

"I have had a change of heart. Frankly it's just not worth caring." This was true, although he was not about to give up exactly why without Hermione here to back him up. She could stop Ron from doing something both he and Harry would regret. Harry had not forgotten that Ron was more than a foot taller than him.

"But it's Malfoy!" Dean stood up and Harry saw that he and Ron were now almost identical in height. _Great, just great._

"Yeah so what? People have hated me and most of them had a change of heart." He looked at Seamus apologetically before continuing. "Some of you are in this room right now."

Both Ron and Dean looked at him with pure anger now. Harry felt nothing but slight agitation. Then the door opened and Hermione walked in. "What are you doing?" She said in her admonishing prefect tone.

"Harry just said that he has stopped hating Malfoy!" Ron said it as if it was the worst thing in the universe.

"Ok… And your point is?" She said skeptically. "So have I." Ron looked at both of them like they had just told him they bought him a blast ended skrewt.

"But…" He said.

Hermione looked at Harry and then something dawned on her. "Oh. Honestly Harry, do I have to always be the bearer of odd news? Long story short, Malfoy Vincent…oh right Crabbe and Gregory…well Goyle, were sent to live near Harry so that they could be protected from the death eaters. I was hanging out with Harry often at the time and it was still better at Ms. Figg's house with them there then at Harry's uncle's house. We learned to tolerate Malfoy eventually because it just wasn't worth the effort it took to hate him. That and neither Vincent Crabbe nor Gregory Goyle is that bad really once you get to know them."

Harry deadpanned "Yeah, Malfoy's the real problem, but his bark is much worse then his bite without his father to back him up. I doubt he would bother attacking us at this point. He'd be too embarrassed."

Dean seemed placated by this but Ron still stood there. He looked hurt more so than angry. "Why didn't you tell me?" He said, obviously feeling quite left out.

"I was afraid you'd react just the way you did." Harry said guiltily. "That and I was still a bit miffed about the fight we had last year." He added yet more guiltily.

"Ron, this is pointless. You know that you and Harry are going to make up so why not just do it now and get it over with as save us all a lot of hardship." Seamus stated. "I do not want to be privy to another one of your squabbles that keeps us up all night."

Ron looked at Harry who said, "I really am sorry mate. I was tired and apathetic and I just didn't have the energy to deal with it at the time. I retrospect it probably would have been better, but I wasn't exactly thinking straight."

"Yeah I'm sorry too. It's just weird to not have you two fighting that's all." Ron sat down and crossed his arms. "Don't think I'll stop disliking him this easily though. He's still Malfoy. The bloody git."

Harry was trying to think of some way to steer the conversation away from Draco Malfoy when Remus Lupin, as if reading his mind, decided to check on them at that exact moment. As soon as he stuck his head in Seamus, Dean and Neville perked up and said. "Professor Lupin!"

Harry, Ron, George and Hermione, having a more personal connection to the man and knowing him intimately since their third year, simply smiled and said, "Hi Remus."

Seamus continued talking excitedly, "Does this mean we're actually going to have a competent defense against the dark arts teacher this year?"

Remus laughed, Harry knew he was quite aware of their other defense against the dark arts teachers both before and after his year. "Well, yes you do as I happen to know the person. But no it is not me. However, I will be around the school grounds playing lapdog though so I'll be available if you need pointers."

"Lapdog?" George raised an eyebrow and a smirk at the older man.

"Well…" Lupin started but Harry interrupted him.

"Can you tell us who it will be?" Harry asked, curious as too who Dumbledore had convinced to take the accursed job.

"Nope, promised I wouldn't. Didn't want anything like two years ago happening to this one." Harry thought of Moody and got the point immediately.

"Drat!" Seamus looked like he had just been turned down for a date and Harry could not help but snicker. George turned towards Seamus, raised his eyebrow more and continued to smirk.

"Oh well, but if Professor Lupin thinks he's good then the new professor has to be at least better then Umbridge." Dean's comment caused everyone in the car to scowl.

"I probably shouldn't be telling you this, but I was incredibly happy when those Centaurs carried that woman off. However horrible she was to you at school, you don't know the half of what she did to me with her damn proposed laws about half breeds." This comment got stares from Seamus and Neville. "Oops, probably shouldn't have said that part. Oh well, no point in hiding it now. I am a werewolf if you didn't already know that."

Harry, Ron, George, and Hermione already knew that of course. Dean seemed nonplussed. Neville looked surprised but quickly normalized. Seamus looked shocked and started stammering. "I th… th… thought that was a rumor?"

"Nope, true as can be." Remus said. "Don't worry though. I will be very well insulated from the student body on days of the full moon. You have no real reason to fear me. Professor Dumbledore has made sure of that." With that he left the six students to their own devices again.

"I still can't believe that we had a werewolf for a teacher and no one told me." Seamus stated partially annoyed and partially excited.

"Well me and Ron didn't know until the end of the year anyway." Harry said, memory's of that night with Peter and Sirius flooded his brain for slightly too long. He hesitated as he felt anger start to bubble up in him. Shoving it down took all his control but he did it and then the memory of that night fell into the ether that was his mind.

No one seemed to notice this as Dean spoke. "I don't see why you guys didn't figure it out. It was pretty obvious after Snape did that whole spiel about Werewolves on the night of the full moon that Lupin was away. But I really don't see the point in worrying about that. As long as he's controlled during the full moon, which was obviously done, he's not any more of a danger to any of us then any other wizard would be."

Neville spoke up next, "Besides, this is professor Lupin were talking about. He was only the best defense against the dark arts teacher we ever had."

 _And the only one who hadn't tried to kill me._ Harry thought.

"Is anyone else hungry?" Ron's question generated growls from all 7 stomachs in the room.

"Dreadfully so," Hermione said, "I didn't get a chance to eat breakfast this morning because of all the extra stuff I had to do. I have been running on caffeine all morning."

Harry was about to offer to buy food for everyone from the approaching trolley when seemingly out of nowhere as if he had been listening into the conversation, Moody appeared in the doorway with a large box of muggle crackers. "Hungry eh? Well now, you'll shouldn't be eat'n stuff off of the trolley here. Never know who might be getting it." With that he opened a package of the crackers and took a corner off of every one in the stack as he passed them to Harry one by one eating it, Harry assumed to show them that they were safe, before continuing. "Oh and you might want to consider a hip flask. Safer then drinking from anything others have touched. Harry here should definitely consider it. But until then you want a sip?" Moody maneuvered the flask towards Harry.

"Thanks Professor but I'll pass." Harry declined.

"Ok. But be careful, and remember, CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" Before handing the entire large box of crackers to Harry and leaving the area.

"Bit of a nutter that one is." Ron said taking a cracker from Harry and eating it.

"Nothing a few flasks of fire whisky can't fix." George joked. "Besides one does have to admit the guy does look out for us. Wow these crackers aren't half bad, I wonder where he got them?" George stated as he started munching on them greedily.

Harry, of course, had eaten them before as they were the only snack Dudley and thus Harry had been allowed to have, when he was allowed any snack at all. Dean and Hermione likely knew what they were too being from Muggle households. Seamus seemed more interested in Remus still then worrying about the crackers, although he did start nibbling on a few of them. Neville just tried them like he was just trying something new he didn't know he'd like and Ron started scarfing them like George.

They spent a long time just chatting amongst themselves until Hermione and Ron realized that they had to go to another prefects meeting and quickly left. Harry decided that now would be as good a time as any to change into his school robes since Hermione wasn't here and everyone else was or would be a housemate. The others besides George, who was already wearing robes, took their cue from Harry and there was much shuffling around as the 4 of them tried to get dressed in the small compartment. After that was done, Harry spent time admiring the stars that had just started coming out as they entered the last bit before the station in Hogsmeade.

As the train neared the station there was a bit more shuffling around in the halls and random people, quite a few of them from the DA, started waving and saying 'hi' as they walked passed. "Hmm…glad you guys aren't prefects aren't ya?" George stated with a smile. "They probably have Ron and Hermione swamped with work trying to protect the castle and such. It'll be a wonder if Hermione gets any sleep at all this year what with her commonly high class load and all." George then turned towards everyone else in the room. "Can't have too many things to worry about, were only human after all. Well at least I think we are. I never really checked." Harry smirked at his slightly amusing comments, realizing again that Fred and George were in fact very different from each other despite their similarities. It was then that the Hogsmeade station came into view and the lot of them started getting together the things they needed.

Hagrid was calling the first years to the boats at the edge of the large lake by the castle as usual and people were gathering around the thestral drawn carriages that take the older students to the school. Harry had been scared of the strange skeletal winged horses when he first saw them at the beginning of the previous year, but they seemed a lot less scary after having ridden them to the Department of Mysteries. A bit of anger filled him, but he didn't even have to quash it this time because one of the thestrals looked at him and screeched in what Harry thought was approval. _You must be the thestral I rode last year._ Harry thought as he walked up to it and petted its head. "Sorry I don't have any snacks for you this time." He said to it in a semi soothing tone. The thestral looked at him with what Harry could only describe as begging despite their skeletal appearance and screechy noises.

Some of the other students were staring at him, but he didn't care. Neville soon walked up to him and the thestral looked at him with the same look. Neville looked kind of surprised and when he didn't have anything either the thestral lived simply with Harry scratching its ear.

"Its strange, but I was never really scared of them. A bit odded out, but not really scared." Neville said. "Of course I have been able to see them since my first year here, so seeing them was always normal."

"Well, I can't say I wasn't scared of them when I first saw them last year, but after that whole thing with the department of mysteries, I have grown to respect them a lot more. They were there for me when quite a few others were not." Harry felt himself tear at the thought of his godfather's death. For some reason he wasn't angry at the moment, just sad. Neville put his hand on Harry's shoulder. He understood, he had lost parents too. Perhaps worse than Harry's parents and godfather being dead, Neville's parents were in a long term ward at Saint Mungo's Wizard hospital after a group of death eaters had driven them insane. He felt the anger come _Can't let it win. If I let it win then I let them win._ With that angry outburst, he quashed what was left of his anger and looked at Neville, who was smiling a consoling smile.

"Hey why the long faces? You guys shouldn't be down like that, after all, you're among friends and classmates and the like." George put one arm over each boy's shoulder, something that looked to Harry to be quite awkward as Neville was at least half a head taller then him. "By the way, I was always wondered what do thestrals actually look like?" He asked. "I want to know, but I don't particularly want to be able to see them." He continued.

"Right you don't," Harry said glad to be on a different although not unrelated topic. "Well they look rather like skeletal horses with bat wings." Harry said as he tried to think of a way to describe the strange creatures.

"Yeah, I can't really think of any better way to describe them either." Neville chimed in, "Their cries sound really screechy and are slightly irritating, but they are nice enough. Wouldn't really recommend riding them though."

"Yeah, pretty bumpy," Harry remembered how it had felt to ride the thestrals and the hippogriff. No doubt about it, he preferred his firebolt any day. Then he remembered that he had never gotten his firebolt back from the dungeons the previous year and his heart sunk. _Damn. Well hopefully it's still there, although I doubt it. With my luck, Malfoy has it now or something._

"Would you be Harry Potter?" A distinctly American accented voice snapped him out of his reverie. "I was told to look for a dark haired, green eyed boy with a lightning shaped scar on his forehead named Harry Potter." The voice continued.

Harry looked at George who looked alert and ready to draw a wand yet intrigued. Neville looked surprised. _No help there, they seem just as unsure as I feel._ He self consciously covered pushed his hair down over his forehead before turning towards where the voice had come from. Standing there was a thin boy about his height and about his age, maybe slightly younger, with grey eyes, light skin and strawberry blond hair that was almost red. He was wearing Hogwarts student's robes and had a wand stuck in his right ear much the same way Luna stored hers when she wasn't using it and a metal muggle ballpoint pen stuck in his left. He looked rather lost. "I'm sorry, I have no idea who I am looking for. I must have gotten it wrong. Ah well, sorry." The boy looked down dejectedly and started to turn away. This surprised Harry, he would have thought that any wizard, even an American one, would have known what he looked like by now. After all, he was 'the boy who lived.' The fact that he didn't seem to know much about Harry made him instantly like him.

"No, you were right. I am Harry Potter."

The boy turned towards him and looked at him questioningly. "I certainly hope so. I have been given strange looks since I got on the train and started looking for you." the boy said. "You wouldn't be pulling my leg now would you?" He looked like he was expecting that, so Harry decided it was best to just tell him the truth.

"Nope. I am Harry Potter, lightning scar and all." With that he lifted up his bangs and showed the boy the scar. His eyes widened.

"Oh my, but that is quite exact. I was imagining something a bit less…picture perfect I guess." He stared at Harry's scar like it was the oddest thing in the universe. But there was something totally different about how he stared at it that made Harry incredibly happy rather than uncomfortable like he usually was. He was concentrating on how odd the scar was and not the person who had it.

"Who might you be?" George said, clearly more agitated at the boy's odd actions.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry, I get lost some times. I'm Wesley, Wesley Tinderspoon." And with that he extended his left hand towards them. George took it grudgingly, then Neville, who had been just staring intrigued the entire time, and finally Harry himself. Wesley then smiled slightly and said, "Nice to meet you." His face got a morbidly intrigued look on it as he again stared at Harry's forehead. "How did you get that scar anyway? It seems a bit too perfect to be something accidental…"


	6. Wesley Tinderspoon

Time seemed to slow as Wesley asked this question. Harry could accept that he might not know quite what he looked like and how exact the scar was, but he found in incredibly hard to believe that he would be asking how he got it. He would have thought that the destruction of such a dark wizard as Voldemort would be a bit more earth shattering then that. To think that a wizarding child would not know about it seemed quite odd. From the looks on George and Neville's faces, they seemed equally shocked.

Wesley started shifting around obviously embarrassed at the response to his question. "Sorry, I know I shouldn't have asked. Me and my big mouth getting me in trouble again." Harry laughed at his total misreading of their response to his inquiry. Harry was so relieved to finally meet a wizard who didn't think of him as the boy who lived as soon as he met him that his shock was replaced with glee. Wesley apparently thought he was being rude asking for such a personal question when to them the question wasn't personal at all, in fact, it was common knowledge. This total change in demeanor seemed to make Wesley even more lost then he already was.

"Well, let's get on the carts before they leave and we end up walking up to the castle." Harry said and then climbed into the still empty carriage attached to the thestral he had been petting. He was certain that Ron and Hermione were in some important prefects meeting and that they could be ages and there was a complete carriage of four people right in front of him. He was also curious about Wesley, as he had never spoken to an American wizard before. George followed him in and then Neville followed. Wesley hesitated and looked up at them uncomfortably. Harry motioned for him to get in and then he smiled and climbed into the carriage.

"So you were asking me about my scar?" Harry said, amused that he was actually explaining it to someone rather than having it explained to him. Wesley's face returned to a slightly agitated but intrigued look before he slowly nodded. "Well when I was really young I was the target of a madman with a vendetta." He felt odd explaining this. He would have thought he would feel sad or uncomfortable with it, but he realized that he really wasn't ever uncomfortable with the event. In fact, when he wasn't uncomfortable because everyone else was obsessing over it, it was strangely normal. "I was targeted by the Killing curse," at that Harry felt himself get slightly glum as a strange look, which could have been recognition, came over Wesley's face. But he said nothing, so Harry continued. "And I somehow lived." He wasn't about to tell this boy he barely knew the whole story, but he was sure that he would get some version of it from somewhere and it might as well be from him.

"Wow that's harsh." Wesley said, "I remember my parents talking about something like that happening in Britain, but it happened when I was too young to remember. To think that I would be told to find this very person…" At that Wesley looked at him with a kind of brotherly look, like he had seen Fred give George.

"Enough about Harry," George piped in obviously getting bored of hearing the same old story over and over again. "What about you? Why are you here?"

Wesley got slightly agitated again as he answered. "I really don't know. I was taken after my last term by a professor Dumbledore and I stayed with him for the summer. At one point I was told that I would be going to school here instead of N.Y.M.A. and at that point he brought me an odd old hat and it put me into Gryffindor whatever that is." The other boy's intrigued looks deepened at this nonchalant comment. "He looked slightly happy and he told me to look for a Harry Potter on the Hogwarts Express as I would be your dorm mate this year and you would be the easiest to find. I looked for you until a strange old man with a glass eye, I think Alastor was his name, I had met him a few times over the summer, stopped me. He said that it would be better to wait until we were safe off the train to look as I didn't want to call too much attention to myself. Which actually he was right, I don't, but the likely hood of that is slim to none so I never really thought about it. After that I sat in a car full of older people who took turns walking up and down the corridors before leaving and finding you by that thestral."

Wesley talked so fast that it was unlikely that they could have interrupted his story if they wanted too. But Harry was listening as he found it hard to believe that this was mere coincidence. There was no student exchange that he knew of, which meant that Wesley was here for some other reason, likely related to the fight against Voldemort and the Order of the Phoenix.

"Wow." George said before asking. "What's N.Y.M.A.?"

"Oh. The New York Magician's Academy or the New York Maturation Academy to the muggle world."

"Ah, so how are your Yankee magic schools anyway." George continued, obviously fascinated by the boy now that he trusted he wasn't here to kill Harry.

"I can't say I guess they are…well I haven't really got anything to compare it to to explain it." Wesley seemed like he was a bit affronted at being the center of attention. His speech seemed forced and fast like he had too much to say but wanted to get it over with as soon as possible.

Neville had a different question for the boy. "You can see thestrals?" He asked meekly.

"Yeah, I saw my great uncle pass away last year." Harry was about to say he was sorry when Wesley cut him off. "I can see you already starting to pity me. Don't. It wasn't like that. He was really old and ready to die anyway. He wanted us to be with him when he died even if he wasn't aware of it so we were. He drank a dreamless sleeping potion and then quietly and peacefully passed away. When he stopped breathing we all had a small cry and then decided to remember the good times." Harry could imagine that. He wished the deaths he had experienced has been like that. The only thing he had ever seen was murder. He quickly bat down the anger that welled up again. He was going to have to stop thinking about that all together.

"Oh." Neville said, "I saw my grandfather die. He was old too and quite ready I suppose, but it was still really hard on me and my grandmother."

"Cheer up. It's not all that hard. All you have to do in remember the good times along with the bad." Wesley reached across and put a hand on Neville's shoulder reassuringly as he said this, causing him to relax noticeably.

Wesley then looked at the rest of them oddly and asked, "So what's it like here at Hogwarts anyway? And who are my other dorm mates? I know their names, but I know nothing else about them"

"Well actually you're looking at three of them." George said then lowered his voice in a conspirative manner. "And I think you'll agree that we are the best looking of the bunch as well."

Wesley's eyes widened at that before he laughed and said, "Shut up!"

"Well, I don't suppose you think you look better than your very identical twin, right George?" Harry asked smirking.

George smirked back, "Of course I do! My smile's cuter." He then flashed his childlike smile and Harry had to agree, it was.

Harry saw Hermione and Ron look in their direction he pointed to the others in the carriage with him and shrugged guiltily not wanting them to be left out. They just smiled back waved and Hermione mouthed 'see you in the great hall' before joining Ernie Macmillan and Padma Patil in a different carriage.

"Wow, I have never ridden in a carriage before." Wesley said clearly intrigued.

Neville looked at him oddly, "How did you get to school then?"

"Well, I grew up in California so I flew in to New York on a muggle plane. Yeah, I know I know, not very safe, but we have really strict laws about secrecy where I come from so muggle transportation is a must. After that, a bus came, picked me up and dropped me off directly in front of the school."

It was then that Wesley looked out the window and his eyes widened at the immense castle before him. Harry remembered his first year here and how he had felt. Now the castle was normal to him, like a home, so it didn't bring out the same feeling of awe. He remembered it well though so he stopped talking and let the boy gaze out the window. George and Neville followed his lead and so the rest of the ride was in silence except for Wesley's "oo"ing and "ah"ing of the castle.

Wesley's awe just seemed to increase as the carriages stopped and the castle was right before him instead of in the distance. He looked amazed at even the central hallway, and when he entered the great hall, all Wesley did was stare at the floating candles and the sky on the ceiling. Hermione apparently couldn't resist showing off all she knew about Hogwarts a history. "It's bewitched you know." She said to him as he stared at it.

"I can tell, but it's still marvelous." He still stared up as Hermione kept talking.

"It's the night sky." She continued, glad someone was actually listening to her for once.

"It's quite accurate too. I can see quite a few constellations and a few things that shouldn't be visible to the naked eye." Harry wasn't sure whether Wesley was even aware of who was talking to him, after all, he hadn't introduced them yet.

"Yeah I know, very beautiful isn't it?" She blushed as she talked to him. Harry heard a large intake of breath from Ron at this. Harry wasn't sure but it looked like Ron was jealous. Harry wasn't sure why, his face was pretty attractive, but other than that he was quite scrawny. His build was slighter then Harry's was and it looked to him like Ron could snap him in half if he wanted to. Harry supposed Hermione wouldn't care much about that though, she was probably swooning cause he actually seemed to care about what she was talking about.

While Wesley was admiring the sky and Hermione was virtually reciting the text of Hogwarts a History from memory to him, Harry decided to take a look over at the teachers table. Dumbledore had his normal place at the center of the table. Professor Sprout and professor Flitwick were talking about something as they sat in their general positions. Ms. McGonagall wasn't at the table, but Harry knew that she brought in the first years to be sorted, so that made sense, especially since Hagrid wasn't back yet either. His return would announce to the rest of the students that the sorting was about to begin. Quite suddenly, the door off to the side of the great hall near Severus Snape opened (it was the same hall that he and the other champions of the triwizard tournament had exited from his fourth year) and a young man wearing a blindfold walked in. He didn't look that much older then many of the seventh year students and Harry had thought he was a student until he walked up to the teachers table and took a seat next to Snape. Harry thought it odd that the man was wearing a blindfold and yet seemed to know exactly where he was going. After he sat down, the man started a conversation with Snape. Harry wasn't sure what his response to it was. It could have been annoyance or just Snape's normal scowl, Harry couldn't tell.

Hermione's wave knocked Harry out of his reverie. She had reserved a seat for him. Seamus, Dean, and Neville were sitting on the other side of the table. Parvati and Lavender were sitting on one side of Hermione and Wesley was sitting on the other side still admiring the ceiling. The empty spot was next to Wesley opposite Hermione. Harry quickly took the spot next to Wesley and Ron sat next to him. Harry didn't notice George again until he sat down and then he saw him in between Seamus and Dean, the taller boys obscuring his view.

"Hey who's the new guy?" Dean inquired pointing at Wesley.

Wesley seemed to notice people were talking about him and stopped looking at the ceiling to respond to Dean. "I'm Wesley." He said, extending his hand again.

Dean took his hand but eyed him suspiciously. Harry didn't exactly care how they got along, he would have plenty of time to see that in the dorm. Of more immediate importance was trying to see the person talking to Snape, who Harry was sure must be the new defense against the dark arts teacher. At this point, something else caught his eye and it totally captured his attention. Blaise Zabini, quiet loner Blaise who Harry had barely noticed and only knew his name because he happened to be the last person sorted his first year, walked into the great hall and he seemed completely different. Where shyness and distance had been, energy and pride seemed to be. He almost skipped over to the Slytherin table and sat right at the edge of it next to the Bloody Baron who he immediately struck up a conversation with. Harry wasn't the only one to notice this. Students never talked to the Bloody Baron unless it was of some grave importance, not even the Slytherins, and he was the Slytherin ghost. And there was Blaise, who Harry had never seen even raise a hand in class, chatting with him like they were old buddies. Quite a few eyes were on them before they went back to what they were doing.

"I don't like it." Harry heard Ron's voice from his left. "He's too cheery, and he's actually talking to the Bloody Baron! Must have joined the Death Eaters or something to get that much confidence." Ron was fuming.

"Maybe you're right." Hermione piped in "I don't know him, so who knows what happened to him, but he is certainly different then he was before." She said. Seamus and Dean nodded. Wesley, who of course knew nothing about this, just continued ogling the grand room.

"I agree with Ron though. All the Slytherins should be watched. I sometimes wonder why they are let back in school." Seamus voice was filled with anger as he spoke.

It was then that Hagrid walked into the great hall and took his place near Dumbledore. Everyone quieted down as the door to the great hall opened and Ms. McGonagall walked through with the first years. Curiously, one of them was holding her hand as if being led by her rather than being with the other first years. McGonagall seemed to be in quite better health then she was after the stunning incident with Delores Umbridge. She wasn't really even using her cane anymore, simply using it like any healthy person might use a walking stick. When Ms. McGonagall pulled out the stool and the Sorting Hat the room grew silent. Harry listened intently for what the sorting hat was going to sing.

Duty bound to split you up

Your friendships get decided

And yet again I warn you all

To not be too divided

For even then when I was made

The four had always seen

Differences are bane or boon

Depending where you lean

You split apart and Hogwarts

Will meet its bitter end

Or be as one together

And then next to her you'll stand

And so I shall as I was told

Put you where talents rise

The place where you will feel at home

So listen without sighs

There's Gryffindor the brave and true

Whose heir cannot be found

Or Ravenclaw the clever ones

Whose heir is twin and bound

Then Slytherin the tricky sort

Whose heir is hidden best

Last Hufflepuff the working type

Whose heir is like the rest

Now come up here and you will see

That this is not so scary

Just put me on and I will know

Where you will be most merry

That ends my song but I must warn

Remember what I've said

So now first years come up and sit

With me upon your head

This song got even less of a standing ovation than the previous one did. In fact everyone in the room seemed to respond to it the same way Harry did, with curiosity and deep thought. Harry wasn't sure what to think of the parts mentioning the heirs and he could tell Hermione was shifting through her own mind looking for what it could mean. She would undoubtedly go to the library as soon as possible to research this. Harry felt a tug on his robes. Wesley raised an eye brow at him as if to ask 'what was that about?' He was about to answer when he heard Ms. McGonagall start the sorting.

"Angel, Leonard." Harry loosely listened to the first name.

"HUFFLEPUFF!" The hat yelled out very quickly. The hufflepuff table clapped for him, but the exuberance of the previous sortings he had seen was gone. Apparently, people were really getting that these were dark times.

"What was that about?" He heard Wesley whisper in his ear. "That was an odd song if I've ever heard one, and everyone's response was even weirder. Why all the long faces? Why would the hat tell you to stand together under the school's name? Shouldn't you do that anyway?"

Harry wasn't sure how to explain it to him. After all, how could one explain that the house rivalries weren't just silly childrens' games but that they actually meant something in the grander scheme of things?

"Well, the houses here at Hogwarts have a history of bickering amongst each other, specifically Slytherin and the rest of them. Slytherin is filled with quite a few gits and they are known to be rough around the edges and tricky cheaters." Wesley looked over at the Slytherin table as 'Cecil, Elizabeth' was sorted into Gryffindor and his table stood up in applause.

"They don't look any worse than anyone else here does." Wesley whispered back.

"Trust me, they are." Harry responded. "But there is house rivalry in the other houses as well. It's just not as pronounced as the, what I would call, all out war between Gryffindor and Slytherin. It seems almost second nature to be wary of them right now. I'd suggest you start being wary of them as well if you know what's good for you."

"I don't know, it seems likely that they feel the same way about you as you do about them if this rivalry is really that bad. Besides, I find it hard to believe they are all bad. All the hat said about Slytherin when it talked was that they were tricky, and when I wore it, I was considered for Slytherin because of 'thirst for acceptance' I believe it was." Harry looked strangely at Wesley and then looked at the Slytherin table and he realized something. He had only had contact with a small number of the Slytherins and he hadn't exactly gotten out on the right foot with the ones who he did interact with. Draco Malfoy was an extreme git. But weren't Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle okay once you got them away from him? Harry realized that he hadn't really given any of the Slytherins a chance, he had just grouped them all in the same category as Malfoy.

"I really don't know what I think. I've just been on edge around all Slytherins since I was here, although I have to admit that that is because most people are on edge around them. I suppose when I think about it, that in and of itself would stick a wedge where there otherwise wouldn't need to be one." Harry felt awful now. He looked over at Blaise again, who was still talking to the Bloody Baron and ignoring everything else. He also realized that not only was he still laughing animatedly, but the Baron was as well. Harry had never seen the Baron laugh. Try as his mind might, it couldn't twist those laughs into anything sinister or beyond what they were: laughs of general merriment. He would definitely have to work on his interhouse relationships. Even if the whole rest of the bloody school thought all the Slytherin's were death eaters, Harry was going to give them a chance. Harry had seen what the Death Eaters were capable of himself and it didn't seem to him that the majority of them were even remotely capable of those atrocities. But if they were forced to only hang out wit those who did? Harry wondered how many Death Eaters really joined because they wanted to or because they felt they had no other choice. Snape caught his eye and he remembered the memory he saw in Snape's Penseive. A sudden association happened in his mind. He remembered his father floating the fifteen year old Snape in the air and it placed itself in his mind right next too the memory of the death eaters from his fourth year levitating those muggles in the air and using them like puppets. No, it was not just Slytherins that were like that, they were all capable of such things. Even he himself had tried to cast an unforgivable curse. admittedly he still thought she deserved it because of what she had done, but that didn't change the fact that he had acted out of anger and almost landed himself in Azkaban because of it.

Harry felt a wave of angst as he remembered just as many examples of Gryffindors being sadistic gits towards Slytherins as they were to them even in his times at school. Wesley was looking at him curiously. He knew something was up, Harry was sure of that.

The sorting of the boy who McGonagall had led into the hall distracted Harry from his inner rant. The boy was walking up to the stool with what Harry knew was a muggle blind mans walking stick. Hermione caught Harry's eye and looked intrigued to say the least. Harry tried to recall the name…Devon Witter was what McGonagall had said. The boy's dark short hair and average build made him look, well, normal. He poked his way up to the stool rather quickly considering, taking the hat that McGonagall handed to him. He then turned around at put it on his head. It was quite anticlimactic as the Hat basically immediately yelled, "RAVENCLAW!" The only other person he had ever seen sorted that fast was Draco Malfoy.

The Ravenclaws yelling stopped, in fact the entire room got quiet as the boy headed off the stool towards the Gryffindor table. He was obviously blind now that Harry could see his face. His eyes were a misty blue color that barely stood out over the white. Ms. McGonagall started towards the boy obviously thinking him lost, but he didn't seem lost to Harry. He looked like he knew exactly where he was going.

The boy stopped in front of him then said, "Harry Potter, I know you can talk to snakes." Harry blushed and looked at Wesley who just raised an eyebrow at him curiously. "You need to start trusting that and start trusting them. Snakes have a bad reputation but they are not evil." The boy then walked off to the Ravenclaw table and sat next to the other first years there. The entire hall was silent and staring at him, even the Slytherins lost their snide expression and looked just as shocked at this remark as everyone else. Only Wesley seemed nonplussed by it, his curiosity just got even deeper.

After another minute or so of staring McGonagall sorted the last student 'Yeller, Eliza' who ended up in Slytherin before Dumbledore stood up. Unlike every other year, everyone seemed shocked and so instead of saying quiet like he normally did, all it took was his standing to alert everyone to his presence.

"As usual, I have some announcements to make. I would like to inform you that the curfew for students who are out of their dorms will be strictly enforced, even if those students happen to be prefects." His eyes stopped on Harry, Ron and Hermione before continuing. "There will be a number of adults on campus that you may not recognize. They are here at my request to protect you during these troubled times." He paused again at this statement.

"Also, there will be a temporary rule that all students are to be with at least two other students at all times when they are not in their dormitories or common rooms. Also, Mr. Filch would like me to inform you that a large number of objects have been added to the list of things banned in the halls including everything from Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes. For the full list of banned items, go to Filches office." George surprised Harry by smiling at this. "He also wants me to remind you that there is to be no wand usage in the halls between classes. As always, the dark forest is off limits to all students. It would do the first years good to remember this and of course, a few of our older students as well." His eyes again went to the Gryffindor table where it stopped at George. _Hmm…it does seem that Gryffindors do the most rule breaking…_ Harry didn't know why he had just noticed that. It had been plainly obvious for his entire time here. "And finally, I would like to sow a bit of my own advice. Listen to the sorting hat. Do not let your rivalries deter you from your beliefs, and of course, blither splotch bloof. Now that that has been said, tuck in." And with those words, the tables filled with food and the room filled with anxious talking.

Harry noticed that Dumbledore had not introduced the new defense against the dark arts professor. He also had not introduced Wesley Tinderspoon or the strange young man in the blindfold if he wasn't the new defense professor. Harry wasn't sure what was up, but his experience last year had taught him to be wary of everybody, even Dumbledore. The only people he truly trusted were Fred, George, Ron, Hermione and Neville. He trusted Ginny more then many of the other students, but he was still a bit wary of her, after all, she did have a similar connection to Voldemort as he did considering she had been literally possessed by him. That and Hermione, Ron and even Neville had been there since the beginning. They had always been a part of this.

Harry took another good look at Wesley now that his normal more wary state of mind had taken over. He seemed nice enough for an American, and he certainly didn't seem the most untrustworthy of sorts, but then again, he barely knew the guy. He'd have to rectify that later, after all they were going to be dorm mates.

The great hall was unusually silent during the feast after the sorting ceremony. People were talking, but it wasn't loud boisterous chatter, not even at the Gryffindor table. It was mostly small groups of three or four people discussing whatever they were discussing. Harry couldn't make much out as everyone seemed to not want to be overheard. The one notable exception to this was Blaise, who had immediately continued his conversation with the Bloody Baron after Dumbledore was finished.

"Har…ry wha do you may ov da strange blind kid?" Ron barely managed to get his comment out through a mouth full of food. However, what astonished Harry most was the fact that Hermione didn't scold him for it. It wasn't that she approved, it was more like she was so lost in thought that she didn't even notice that he had done it.

"I don't know. I have to admit that he does have a point. Other than the basilisk, I have yet to meet a snake that ended up horrible in the end. The first one I ever talked to was actually quite nice." Harry absentmindedly responded to Ron's question. Wesley raised an eyebrow at the mention of a basilisk, but didn't respond beyond that.

"Yeah, but they are still snakes!" Seamus responded. It was incredibly old news that Harry was a parsel mouth. Everyone had found out about that, including Harry, his second year.

"What's wrong with snakes?" Wesley asked the group.

"What do you mean what's wrong with snakes?" Seamus responded like it should be obvious that all snakes are evil incarnate.

"Well, I have a pet snake and it isn't particularly dangerous or deadly. In fact it's quite useless really, other then being cute." Wesley then produced a quite small Gartner snake from his robes. Harry thought the reaction was a bit overly dramatic. Ron immediately stiffened as if the tiny snake was going to hurt him and Seamus almost jumped out of his seat. Neville looked a lot like Ron. Hermione and Dean on the other hand, being muggleborns and thus knowing that Gartner snakes are about the least dangerous of snakes you could ever wish to find, started snickering. Wesley looked at the three with very bemused expressions. Harry on then other hand was much more interested in the snake, which seemed to be talking to him.

 _"Interesting place you've got here?"_ It said to him very softly. Harry wasn't sure whether to respond. He knew everyone knew he could talk to the snake but, he wasn't sure how they would respond to him actually talking to one.

"Hey Harry, you mentioned talking to snakes?" Harry was slightly taken aback at Wesley's comment. The last thing he needed was to get on the new dorms mate's bad side over something stupid like him being a parsel mouth. But he couldn't really deny it so he simply nodded. "Cool, I wish I could do that…" He said longingly. All five of the other students as well as a few others around who had happened to overhear the conversation gaped at him.

"Why would you ever want to be able to talk to snakes?" Seamus asked.

"Because it would be yet another thing to talk to," Wesley said longingly. "I was always the odd man out in school so I didn't really ever fit in. Being able to talk to anything would be preferable to nothing at all. And I have never met a snake I didn't like."

Harry was about to respond to this, but professor Dumbledore stood up and told the prefects to take the students to their dorms. Hermione stood up immediately and waved bye before rounding up the Gryffindors and leading them off towards the dorms.

"Harry, Dean, Seamus, Neville, George…Wesley." Ron said the last name with disdain. "We are supposed to wait here. Dumbledore wants to talk with us about something." Ron scowled at Wesley suspiciously as he said this. Wesley shrunk under the much taller and bigger boys' gaze, noticing Ron's obvious distaste for the first time.

"Well now, I see you all have met your new dorm mate. This will make things much easier." Dumbledore stepped in before Harry had to do anything, something he was quite happy about. "I would still like to speak with you though, please follow me." Professor McGonagall walked up behind them and then the two professors led them to the headmaster's office.

"Skittles," the door opened as Dumbledore said the password, although Harry was sure that he didn't need a password to enter his own office. The seven students and one professor followed the headmaster into his office where he motioned for them to sit down on two soft couches that seemed to be a new addition to the office since Harry had last been there. Harry also noticed that the office was a lot more barren than it had been in the past. He flushed as he remembered the likely reasons for the change. Harry had broken many if the things in his office the previous year. The picture frames were in the places they had always been and the desk seemed unchanged, but most of the little knickknacks had been removed and replaced with different ones. Although these ones didn't look nearly as interesting as the ones he had broken.

Dumbledore got everyone's attention with a clap of his hands as Fred appeared in the room from the floo. "It is quite convenient that the majority of you have already met your new dorm mate." Dumbledore motioned towards Wesley, who stood up. "This is Wesley Tinderspoon. He went to school in New York in the United States until recently, and do to unforeseen circumstances, he has had to relocate his schooling here. To help with the transitioning, as he would be joining a group of sixth year dorm mates who already knew each other and the fact that he would already stand out because of his accent and demeanor, the other professors and I decided it would be most prudent to sort him during the summer so he could possibly get to know the people he would be sleeping with ahead of time. And to avoid any effect having a much older person during the sorting ceremony might have on the first years. Not to mention the effect it would have on Wesley himself." Dumbledore smiled after that. "As you are all probably aware, he was sorted into Gryffindor and so will be your dorm mate this year." He then motioned to Wesley who smiled sheepishly and sat down next to Harry.

After Wesley's introduction, Dumbledore turned his attentions to the Weasley twins. "Fred and George Weasley, whom you all are quite aware of I am sure." Dumbledore's eyes seemed to twinkle a bit more as he said this, a mischievous gleam there that Harry had seen a few times before. "They weren't doing that well in their classes last year and so I agreed to let them return to the school," he then turned to the others in the room, "as sixth years. I would also like to note that they have a special reason for being particularly in your dorms. Because in these trying times, we all need to be with people we can trust with our lives." At that Dumbledore looked over his glasses at everyone before saying. "That is all. Professor McGonagall, could you be so kind as to escort the sixth year Gryffindors back to their dormitory?"

"Of course, come along now. You know the way." McGonagall led the group back towards Gryffindor tower. Harry had noticed that no one had spoken during the introduction and Harry was sure that was because all the other sixth year Gryffindors were wondering the same thing he was. Why was Wesley sent here really? He found it hard to believe that anything that Dumbledore would describe as unforeseen circumstances would be anything as calm as he had put it. Harry was sure that it had something to do with the Order of the Phoenix, as there was no student exchange and there was nothing else that would point to an American student being at Hogwarts at all, especially not this secretively.

"Guardian Force," The portrait of the fat lady at the door of the Gryffindor dorms opened as McGonagall said the password. "You boys get some sleep now." She said in the very stern yet calm voice that only she seemed to be able to produce.

It was rather late, and aside of a few seventh years who were loafing around, it was rather empty. Harry was tired and wanted to be ready for his classes the next day. He was glad to see Wesley start talking with Ron, Seamus and Dean as he drifted off to sleep. _I hope he fits in. It will be nice to have someone else be the center of attention instead of me for once._ At that he smiled and drifted off to sleep.


	7. Unforeseen Faces: One Old, One New

The room was a real mess the next morning as seven boys rushed to get ready at the last moment. They had all woken up with only ten minutes to get to breakfast, and of course, their stuff wasn't unpacked yet. It was chaos, utter chaos. Seamus and Dean had somehow managed to get their robes mixed up despite Dean being significantly taller than him. Fred and George had not been helpful in any way by continually suggesting that they had found some lost item that someone was looking for and then apologizing sarcastically when there was nothing there. Wesley was trying desperately to bring some order to it all, but he kept getting shoved out of the way as the larger boys looked frantically for some such thing or another. Harry himself had decided to wait patiently until the others were done and then get dressed afterward. He didn't really care if he was a few minutes late to breakfast or if he missed the schedules. He'd just ask Professor McGonagall for it later, if Hermione didn't grab his, which was quite likely.

At some point during the frantic preparation Neville was shoved onto Harry's bed where it appeared that he had decided on a similar course of action. "I am not looking forward to potions." He said nervously to Harry as they watched Wesley get barreled over again by Seamus, who was frantically searching for his wand which had disappeared in the mess of the morning.

"I don't know. I hope that there are others in the class besides us and the Slytherins though." Neville nodded as he handed Seamus his wand, which had been shoved onto Harry's bed near where Neville was sitting.

"Well, Hermione is in the class right?" Neville looked like he was praying she was as he said this.

"I think so. She signed up for it at least." Harry caught a half pushed, half flung Wesley as George rushed across the room obviously looking for something else that had been lost in the confusion. Wesley just moved off of Harry and sat next to him panting silently, obviously deciding to let the bigger boys finish and not get shoved around anymore.

"I'm glad. I wouldn't want us to be the only Gryffindors in the room. We would be eaten alive for sure, not to mention that we would never keep enough points to get the house cup, ever." Harry laughed and nodded as Seamus and Dean left the room, finally ready for their classes.

"Ow…" Wesley finally spoke as he rubbed his neck and cracked a few joints. "Remind me not to get in that Irish boy…"

"Seamus." Neville supplied the name.

"Yeah, Seamus' way again. I'm not sure I can take any more of that." Harry snickered and Wesley groaned again.

"You ok?" George asked. "Sorry about that. We can get rather rowdy when were late. You need to go to the medical wing?" He asked apologetically.

"Naw. I'm not really that hurt, just achy that's all. I'm more worried about the fact that we don't have time to get clean, nor clean this up." Wesley looked at the now dump of a room.

"I think I can take care of the lack of a shower at least." Harry remembered the spell that Nymphadora Tonks had used to clean the bird cage, he figured it would work on anything else so he tried it. "Scourgify!" he said pointing his wand at himself. It was the oddest feeling. He suddenly felt cleaner, but without the nice feeling of a shower to go with it. At least it was better then feeling dirty all day. After being sure that it had worked he used it on the others. "As for the room I have no idea how to clean this besides the long way."

"We can deal with that. You guys get ready so that we can actually get breakfast before class." Fred said, and then he waved his wand and all the clothing and other things on the floor sprung up into a twister around the room, depositing themselves folded in various places. After that was over and Harry could see again, he got out his trunk and got dressed, making sure to keep his wand where he could see it. Wesley and Neville followed suite and since Fred and George had already gotten ready (they had gotten dressed during the earlier chaos) they actually managed to get there before the feast started.

Hermione called the five of them over to her, motioning Wesley specifically to sit next to her. Ron stiffened again but said nothing as he sat next to Harry opposite Dean and Seamus. Fred and George took places next to Ron and Hermione, surrounding the four students. Almost immediately after they sat down Professor McGonagall walked by them and handed them their schedules. "I do hope you intend to get to your classes on time. If you two are ever late to potions I will never hear the end of it." She said seriously but with a small smile. Neville blushed at this and then looked at his schedule. Harry then did as well.

The NEWT schedule was completely different from the OWL one. The day was split into 4 two hour periods. Two before and two after lunch, with fifteen minute passing periods between them. _Were gonna have to rush to get to class on time._ Harry thought miserably. He also noticed that every so often there was a study period to be spent in either the dorms or the library. They seemed to coincide with times that were not being used for classes and also seemed individual to the person in question.

"Care of magical creatures first." Ron said, obviously a bit wary. After all, Hagrid was known for his eccentricities as far as monsters go. Considering that this is a NEWT class, he would have to expect anything.

"Did either of you notice that our care of magical creatures class is meeting by the quidditch field rather than at Hagrid's hut?" Hermione's asked.

Harry looked at the location, "You're right. I wonder why?" He asked no one in particular.

"Who knows?" Ron said shrugging nonchalantly.

"You have care of magical creatures too?" Dean asked.

"Yeah, I wonder about it though. Isn't there a big field by the quidditch patch? That doesn't bode well for that class, especially with Hagrid's past track record. Bigger field means more space."

"Which means bigger beast." Hermione, Harry and Ron shivered alongside Dean as he finished Harry's thought.

"As long as it's not another spider I'll be fine." Ron shivered even more as he said that.

At that point everyone started getting up to go to their first classes. Wesley, Neville and Seamus, who apparently had study periods together, waved at the others before they walked off towards the dorms. Harry, Dean, Hermione, and Ron headed off towards the quidditch pitch followed by Fred and George, who seemed quite happy to chat between themselves and mostly ignore their younger protégés.

They ran into Justin Finch-Fletchley and Susan Bones on the way there as well as Ernie McMillan, whom he was surprised to see. Justin told them he continued with the class to learn more about how to defend himself against the more dangerous creatures out there, "such as basilisks." Harry nodded knowingly, remembering his second year vividly. Harry thought this was a good idea, after all, Justin was a muggleborn. Ernie and Susan had taken it because Justin had, standing along side him. That and they needed another class anyway and they had to admit that the OWL had been fairly easy.

As the pitch came into view, they did not see any sign of a large man or any very dangerous large animals. Something all of them were looking for. However, what caught Harry's eye was a large group of students of various sizes staring at a red topped blur whizzing around the pitch. As he got closer, Harry noticed a bunch of Slytherins there too. _Why would Malfoy take this class? He hates Hagrid…_ He also noticed Blaise Zabini and Millicent Bustrode. _Well, maybe Blaise isn't that bad…_ He thought knowing full well that even just Malfoy and Millicent were going to be a pain. Zacharias Smith and Padma Patil were also in the class, adding one Ravenclaw and making it have people from every house.

No one noticed them walk up as everyone was busy watching the incredibly fast flyer above the pitch. Harry was impressed. Even with his seeker eyes he could barely make out anything but red hair. The blur quickly set down near a group of Slytherin and Hufflepuff first years who were watching in awe. Off the broom steeped none other than Charlie Weasley.

"Charlie?" Ron whispered behind Harry, obviously more to himself than anyone else. Fred and George smiled but remained uncharacteristically silent.

"Thank you for the kind demonstration Mr. Weasley." Madam Hooch said as the group of older students walked across the pitch to see what was going on.

"That's Professor Weasley now." Charlie said giddily.

"Of course, how silly of me. Well I need to get to my class and it looks like the remainder of yours is here now." Madam Hooch smiled at him as she said this. Harry guessed that Charlie was one of her best students, after all he was a seeker and she was the quidditch coach as well as the flying instructor.

At that, Charlie walked over to where the sixth year students were standing. "I hope you're not too disappointed at the change of instructors. Hagrid is a great grounds keeper but he tends to get carried away with his choice of material and he will be leaving the school at various times over the semester. Because of this, Professor Dumbledore wanted the NEWT level classes to have a more consistent instructor so he hired me."

There was an almost universal sigh of relief from the group. In fact, it seemed that Draco Malfoy was the only one in the group who seemed annoyed even angry at the change. "How did YOU get to be an instructor here?" He said incredulously.

Charlie's features suddenly changed into an unhappy glare that would have been intimidating even without his built up frame. Draco immediately shut up at this, but not fast enough. "Well, frankly I would think that you of all people would be happy about this change given your track record with Hagrid and his beasts." Harry remembered Buckbeak and what had happened to him. "Oh and don't think that that trick of yours will work on me. I will not let you think you can walk all over me just because of your family. I will remind you that your father is no longer here to bail you out." Draco visibly shivered at this but kept his angry scowl. "If you make another silly error, I may not be able to protect you, so pay attention and don't do anything stupid or I will have you out of my class and out of this school before you can blink an eye. Oh and lose a point from Slytherin for the outburst towards a teacher.” After that he got back a slightly happier demeanor, however it was obvious he was still very much annoyed. He then turned towards the field behind the pitch, “Everyone follow me."

The field itself was rather empty except for one white winged figure on four legs in the center of it. As they got closer Harry could see that it was a winged horse. But not a skeletal horse with skin covered bat like wings like a thestral. This was a beautiful white horse with large feathered wings. Also its whinnies were more like a horse's except much more composed and fluid. Almost like it was singing. Harry knew what this was from his muggle schooling on Greek mythology. It was a pegasus.

"As this is the first class I was decided to start us off with something less dangerous. Does anybody know what this is?" Unsurprisingly, Hermione raised her hand. Harry raised his had too as did Dean and Justin. Apparently pegasi were not as well known in the Wizarding world as they were in the muggle one.

"Harry? What do you know about it?" Hermione still had her hand in the air, but it looked like Charlie was purposely avoiding calling her. Everyone knew she knew the answer.

"That is a pegasus." Harry said.

"Yes, you are correct. Can you tell me anything else about pegasi?"

"Not really, other than the fact that a Greek hero named Perseus rode one." Harry hadn't learned about this in a very long time and it wasn't really his favorite subject when he was younger.

"Okay, well anyone else?" Dean and Justin raised their hands again and of course Hermione had never put her hand down. "Justin?"

"It was born from the blood of Medusa, at least in Greek myth." He said.

"Very good. Yes it was. Now you have started to touch on more practical knowledge of pegasi, such as why they are so rare. Anyone care to comment on this?" Dean didn't put his hand up again. With no one else responding Charlie turned and finally called on a very anxious Hermione.

"Pegasi may have been born from Medusa originally as they are born from pools of venomous blood left behind by monstrous snakes that are left standing for a period of at least twenty four hours, but more commonly after a few months. This makes them incredibly rare. They have many useful things about them including being very nice to most people but able to protect themselves and their allies with great ferocity when they need to. They also are immune to most natural venoms and their blood acts as an anti-venom against many venoms including all known snake venoms."

Charlie smiled as she finished. He then looked at Harry and in a more gruff voice that sounded a lot more like the Charlie he remembered and not this studious instructor that seemed quite out of place to him. "This Pegasus was born form the Basilisk in the chamber of secrets that Harry Potter killed."

Everyone stared at Harry at that. Harry was embarrassed to say the least. But it was true, he had slain it and almost died in the process.

"Now everyone can pet and touch the Pegasus. They are very social creatures who rather like contact with anything. They are very slow to anger but an angry Pegasus is more dangerous than any stallion you'll find, so I wouldn't recommend teasing it." Charlie seemed to have gotten his happy gleam back. He was obviously in his element. He loved magical creatures.

The rest of the class consisted of flying around with the Pegasus and some old school brooms from the quidditch supplies. "Sorry, I forgot to put that anyone with a broomstick would probably want to bring them as quite a few of our lessons will be using them." This comment had made Harry frown. He hadn't gotten his broom back after Umbridge had taken it and as time went on it became less and less likely that he would ever see it again.

Everyone who wanted got a chance to ride the Pegasus, which seemed to like Harry, Dean and Ron the best out of all of the students there. Although that wasn't much, as it seemed to like everyone, even Malfoy. Even Hermione rode it after much pushing from him and Ron. The Pegasus was much more fluid and graceful then the thestrals or Buckbeak. It was almost like riding a living broomstick that swayed a bit more.

Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Dean talked about this on their way back to the school after class when they heard a voice they all didn't expect from behind them. "Interesting class wasn't it?" Blaise Zabini had walked up to them happily. Ron and Dean were obviously not happy about this and the scene seemed to freeze into an awkward silence except Hermione, who had continued walking towards her next class, disappearing into the castle grumbling about boys.

"I liked it. The Pegasus was a nice change." Harry lived up to his thought on giving the Slytherins another chance.

Blaise was about to respond when they Ron spoke up. "I have no idea what you're up to Zabini, but I suggest you go back to your death eater friends before you get hurt." Blaise cringed a little at Ron's comment but didn't move off towards the other Slytherins who were quickly approaching.

"I suggest we all stick to our own." Dean said, Harry noted that it was not just to Blaise he had looked to Harry as well. This made Harry a bit nervous. All his more Slytherin idiosyncrasies stood out to him greatly.

"You know Thomas, not ALL of us Slytherins hate your guts." Blaise said a bit more uptight then before. "I was more afraid of Malfoy and what might happen to me if I ever talked to anyone out of house." While what Blaise was saying made perfect sense, Dean and Ron didn't seem to by it. Harry didn't see this going anywhere good especially considering that he and Ron, at least, had a free period after this, meaning it could easily escalate. And right then as if he could feel the heat in the air between them, Malfoy decided to step in and as usual make things worse.

"Hey Zabini, what are you doing over there talking with the Mudbloods and Mudblood lovers? Trying to get on their good graces? After all, you could probably get a very good grade from the bigger weasel if you were friends with them. Good thinking, maybe I'll try that sometime if my marks slip." At that, he walked off laughing. That was the last straw, Ron lashed out, not towards Malfoy as Harry had expected, but towards Blaise. Harry found himself moving to help Blaise for some unexplained reason. The scene seemed to play out in slow motion as the Ron's fist connected with his face instead of Blaise' chest. Harry could barely think do to the pain and shock, more so at what he had just done then what Ron had, before he passed out.

The next thing Harry knew, he was sitting in the hospital wing with a very concerned Charlie Weasley looking him over. He noticed that neither Ron, Dean nor Blaise were there. _Why did I notice that Blaise isn't here?_ He thought to himself oddly. He wouldn't have expected the Slytherin to be there, at least he thought he wouldn't. "What happened?" Charlie asked in a very stern tone. "All I know is that I heard a shout from a student about a fight near the quidditch pitch and me and Madam Hooch ran up and then found you and Mr. Zabini on the ground, you unconscious and Ron looking entirely shocked at his own clenched fist." Harry normally wouldn't tell teacher about something like this, but he was finding it incredibly difficult to think of Charlie as a teacher and not a Weasley. The fact remained that he had never really had any trouble telling the Weasley kids about anything, except Percy of course, but he was the odd man out in the family.

"Well, Ron, Dean, Hermione and I were walking back towards the castle after class talking when Blaise walked up." _He's Blaise to me now and not Zabini? When did this happen?_ "He asked us how we thought that class was, so I answered." Harry found that while his face felt fine at rest, talking made his jaw ache. "Well, Ron and Dean weren't too happy about this, after all he is a Slytherin, and they both told him to leave. Long story short, Malfoy walked up, called Dean and me mudbloods and Ron a mudblood lover and insinuated that Blaise was only trying to get on our good side to get better marks from you. Then Ron lost control I guess and he tried to punch Blaise. For some reason I don't understand at all, I jumped between them."

"Hmm…" Charlie said, looking rather thoughtful but still a bit annoyed. "I am going to have to have a talk with Ron and Dumbledore about this. This is serious. It's lucky you stepped in and there isn't a Slytherin in here, otherwise we would have to get Snape involved and that would most certainly get Ron's prefect badge removed." He then thought more. "Not that McGonagall is going to be much better. Thank you Harry."

Harry sat up and quickly winced through saying, "You won't tell Ron I told you this right?" Harry was sure that he wasn't going to be the best liked person around the Gryffindor dorms at the moment if his past experience meant anything, probably not around anyone actually. The last thing he needed was his best friend getting any madder than he already was.

"I won't. Although, you should know that after he hit you, Ron was so distraught that he ran off towards the dorm. He didn't seem mad at you. If anything he was mad at himself. I don't know about Dean, but he waked off after Ron looking quite blank faced. You may find this disconcerting, but it was Blaise who picked you up and carried you here before going to his common room for his study period. He didn't even flinch or wait for me to ask him to do so or anything, he just picked you up and asked if I thought he should take you to the hospital wing.” Harry wasn't sure how to respond to that so he didn't, and pretty soon after that Charlie continued. “On the topic of who will know about this conversation, I will have to tell the headmaster and Professor McGonagall." Harry has expected this and so it didn't bother him that much. If Harry knew anything about Albus Dumbledore, it was that he could keep secrets. Professor McGonagall was a trickster at heart, and he couldn't get out of it anyway, so it didn't really matter in the end. He then noticed that it had been almost two hours, so it was almost time for lunch.

He was not looking forward to that. He was sure that the confrontation between Ron and Blaise had gotten around school by now and he had no idea how they were going to react. No, he had a good idea, but it wasn't anything he was looking forward too. Harry then realized that the Weasley twins were nowhere to be found. He doubted that they could have done anything about what had happened, but he dud wonder what his theoretical bodyguards were doing.

Harry was joined by Remus Lupin as he left the medical wing, something that did not surprise him in the least bit. "Substitute bodyguard?" He asked Lupin with a smirk.

"Pretty much," was his only response.

They walked the rest of the way to the great hall in silence. Harry was lost in thought and worrying about what was going to happen when he got there and Remus didn't pry, for which Harry was thankful. What he got was not exactly what he expected but he wasn't sure if it was good or bad. No one was staring at him, but that was because everyone was staring at Ron who was, apparently apologizing to Blaise.

Harry tried to go to sit by Hermione without making a big racket but of course that was impossible. "Harry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm so stupid! Are you ok?" Everyone in the room was staring at Ron as he said this.

"I'm fine." Harry said, even though it still ached to speak. He then sat down, wanting to avoid as much staring as possible. He knew that, all things considered, it was a lost cause, but at least he would be less noticeable around his taller housemates. He took a seat next to Wesley who apparently had become a permanent resident next to Hermione at the Gryffindor table.

"Hey Harry. You ok?" Blaise asked from right behind him earning more stares then even when he and Ron were talking. "I realize that that punch was meant for me and I wanted to thank you… Well thank you while you were awake anyway." He then smiled that new un-old Blaise like smile.

"I'm fine and you're welcome I suppose." Blaise seemed happy at this and walked back towards his own table where he took his new seat next to the Bloody Baron who waved at Harry happily. An action which chilled him more than anything else.

"So it's true then? That Ron tried to punch Blaise and you got in between them?" Hermione's voice rang out from his right as Ron sat down next to him. It was completely silent like the whole room was listening for the answer.

"Yeah it's true…" He mumbled to himself. There were immediately too many voices at one time to make sense of it all.

"Ron! I can't believe a prefect!" "Why would you protect a Slytherin?" "Why in the world?" "He must have started it right?" "This is stupid why is everyone…" "Nothing could be worse right now for Gryffindor." "Look at Snape. He is probably pissed."

Harry felt himself being pulled up from his right and taken out of the room. "Harry, are you ok?" Wesley asked simply once they were out in the hallway.

"No I'm not!" Harry surprised himself with this outburst and Wesley visibly shrunk from him as Harry had seen him do before when well, any outburst was directed his way, but he didn't budge beyond that. Harry suddenly felt guilty, Wesley had just tried to help after all. "I'm sorry. I'm just tired of every little thing I do being watched and commented on like I'm some hero or villain."

"I could tell. That's why I pulled you out of there, because I do know what it's like. Maybe not for the same reasons, but I understand what it's like to be the center of attention when you don't want to be, and you looked angry and were just holding it in so I figured..." He trailed off at those last words and looked at Harry again.

"Thank you. You know I normally would have lashed out at you for even thinking you could know what I feel, but for some reason I just trust you. I don't know why."

Wesley frowned a bit at that and then looked at his watch. "Oh we need to get to our next classes now!" And then just like that he was gone, the sounds of his fast paced footsteps on the castle floor the only indication he was even there.

"Harry are you ok?" Ron's voice echoed Wesley's from earlier almost perfectly and he remembered why he loved his friends so much, even his new one. They actually cared about him as a person beyond being the Boy Who Lived.

"Yeah we heard the conversation with Wesley, he seems rather nice." Hermione's voice followed Ron's form behind him.

"Yeah, he is." Harry had come to that conclusion a long time ago. "But we need to get to our Psionics class now."

"Oh right. That stupid class that we were put in by Dumbledore. I hope there isn't too much homework in this class, I am going to be swamped already with my prefect duties and NEWTs work." Ron sighed and started towards the room where their next class was.

"Oh honestly, it is not that much work!" Hermione was adamant as usual about Harry and Ron's questionable study habits but Harry was not in the mood to listen. Something about Wesley's response to their conversation bothered him. When it ended he seemed more uncomfortable then Harry did and Harry could see no viable reason why. He pondered this and came to the same lack of a conclusion all the way to the psionics classroom, a small room relatively near Gryffindor tower.

The room itself was rather different than any classroom he had ever been in, muggle or wizarding. It was about half the size of the other class rooms at Hogwarts and there were no desks or even chairs. Instead there were little pillows of various colors laid out on the floor in a similar manner to how the desks in a classroom might be laid out. The walls were quite filled with plaques and rugs and a rather nice tapestry depicting what looked like the four founders of the school looking down on a miniature version of their creation.

The room was nothing compared to its single inhabitant. Hovering, for lack of a better description, about a half meter off the ground was the young blindfolded man Harry had seen talking with Snape. Now that he got a closer look at him, he noticed more of his features. The man looked like he would be pretty tall if he were standing upright. He had very jet black hair that seemed to shine much like Severus Snape's hair but without the greasy look. It was also a lot shorter than most of the other professors, the longest part being his bangs which hung over the blindfold he was wearing. He was wearing a muggle wife beater and a pair of workout shorts. He did not stir from his position, so Harry walked into the room and chose a red pillow and sat down. Hermione took a blue pillow next to him and Ron took the single Black one next to her. Harry then noticed that there were only ten pillows in the room, four red pillows, three blue pillows, a black pillow and two yellow ones. It did occur to him that they were the house colors and that they were arranged in such a way that none of them were adjacent to any of the same color. They were also arranged so that there were two rows of five pillows. _This is likely going to be a small class then._ Harry thought.

Harry, Ron and Hermione were the first people to arrive. The young man who Harry could hardly believe was a NEWTs professor, but was the only person in the room appeared to be meditating. Harry turned towards the door and waited. He remembered that Seamus was in this class, but wasn't sure of anything else. It was then that he noticed Fred and George standing on the corners looking around the room like it was the strangest thing they had ever seen. When Fred caught Harry looking, he mouthed, _Now isn't this odd?_ Then winked at him. Harry simply nodded in response. A minute or so later, Justin Finch-Fletchley and Ernie Macmillan walked into the room where they walked up to the three Gryffindors, said "hi" then predictably commented on how odd the room looked. Not far behind them came Seamus who took a pillow next to Hermione, then Padma Patil, Terry Boot and Michael Corner, who Harry recognized as sixth year but did not really know all that well. That was nine out of ten and Harry wondered who the one black pillow was for. He had already figured out that these pillows were likely a seating arrangement. He was glad there was only one Slytherin, if there had to be any at all. He wasn't too happy that there was a red pillow to its left though. He or Hermione would have to be on that pillow if the class was to remain sane.

Not long after the Ravenclaws entered the room, a lone person in a Slytherin robe followed suit. It was Blaise Zabini. Harry let out an audible sigh of relief. For once he wouldn't have to worry about the Slytherin's in a class. Blaise understandably walked over and sat by himself on the last corner pillow between Michael and Terry, who didn't seem at all happy that he was there.

As soon as Blaise sat down, the man stood up. He walked towards the front of the class and then seemed to concentrate on something for a second before saying. "Hello, I am your psionics instructor Leon Saren. While I know you are technically supposed to call me 'Professor Saren' I prefer a much more casual environment in a classroom, especially a classroom where people are working with each others minds. For that reason, you all must get to know each other as if you were dorm mates, siblings or possibly closer and thus I would prefer you call me Leon when we are not in the presence of other faculty. For this reason, I have assigned seats, at least until your houses no longer matter. You will not be sitting next to anyone in your own house for the first few weeks of class. After that we will likely not be having lectures and so it is unlikely that seating will matter as much." There was a lot of grumbling at this and people were glancing at Blaise furtively.

Professor Saren walked back towards the tapestry behind at the back of the room. "Look at this tapestry. I left it there for a reason." He then turned his head towards the confused students. He was wearing a blindfold wasn't he? How could he see? He seemed to have expected this line of thought so he continued with. "I remember this from my years here because it was the thing that I saw the clearest immediately before the accident that blinded me." The silence in the room became palpable at that comment. "Oh come now, it's not that bad and me being blind is not the point. The point is that it was never intended for the houses to be at odds with each other as they are today. Look at this depiction of the four founders looking down at their creation. This is what the sorting hat was talking about. This is what we must foster in this room in order to effectively take this class."

The response to his statements was quite surprising to Harry. Ernie Macmillan grunted and said. "Maybe three of them meant it that way, but Salazar Slytherin didn't!" He said angrily.

Leon simply turned to face the class and then said calmly, "And how would you know that? True, he spoke parseltongue, but other than that we cannot really know what the man was thinking other than that he seemed to value wizarding blood. But even that is not the main thing that concerns the house. I was in Slytherin when I went here, and I am half-blood at best."

Ernie wasn't beaten yet. "Of course a Slytherin would say that. But you weren't here our second year when the BASILISK that came from Slytherin's chamber was petrifying people including two of my friends! Who also happen to be in this room!" At that he put his hand on Justin's shoulder who was visibly shaken. He then looked over at Hermione, which slightly surprised Harry before continuing. "You would probably want that to happen! I didn't see any of the Slytherins looking for it. They were all fine because they are all blooded!" Ernie was getting really angry now, though professor Saren still seemed unaffected by his outburst.

"I may not have been here for that, but I did hear about it. As for being in Slytherin, I didn't really enjoy it much. No one trusted me for essentially no reason, including my own housemates, and we were expected to cheat, lie and battle for power. While those are traits that Slytherin was known for, it was troublesome that everyone seemed to think, and continues to still think apparently, that these are the only things that make up the people in Slytherin house. I wonder which of you did the hat consider for Slytherin before it put you in your current houses?" Harry shivered slightly at this as did Ernie, and Ron, neither which honestly surprised him.

The professor then smiled before saying. "But that's exactly what I am trying to get at. Your houses are chosen for you based on your traits and I am not convinced that the hat is correct when it says that it has never made a mistake. Who you are should not be defined by an arbitrary position and in this class it won't be. However, arbitrary repositioning is required to undue the arbitrary conditioning you all have received because of the house rivalries. For that reason, you do not have houses in this class. If you gain house points, you all gain them. If you lose house points, you all lose them. So now I assume you all can see the colored pillows that I have arranged on the floor, pick one whose color matches your current house.” He paused for a moment before continuing, “And that is pretty much the end of my lesson for the day. Talk to those people next to you, get to know them. Also get to know me. If you want to ask me something ask me. I'm not shy."

He then sat cross legged on the floor again before smiling and finishing with. "Oh and I know I am not wearing standard attire for school. I am wearing what I find comfortable because just as house rivalries cannot exist in a class like this we do not have the luxury of formalities either. You will all have to be as comfortable as possible or you will never succeed. For that reason, I will start class twenty minutes after the normal starting time so that people can go to their dorms and change into more comfortable clothing. And of course, end it early as well. I will start when everyone gets here if it is before the announced time, which I suspect you will all want to do. The magic of the mind is fascinating, and once you all get away from your houses and get to know each other as people you will be happy to have a place where the only thing that matters is the subject matter and each other. I know I would have been. In any case go ahead, sit where you are supposed to and chat."

Blaise went to sit on the only black pillow (something Harry thought was quite unfair) and of course everybody scrambled to take the seats that were not next to him except Harry who as he had planned before stood up and walked directly to the red pillow adjacent to the black one, where a very indignant but slightly hurt Blaise sat. Harry watched the others and in the end it ended up being Ernie from Hufflepuff (Justin was still spooked by his memory of the Basilisk) and Padma from Ravenclaw, "Whatever, it's not like were being asked to marry him or anything!" She had said after Terry and Michael had looked at the seat in horror. Ron, Hermione and Seamus chose pretty much random seats and started chatting with whoever was next to them. Harry was more interested in sitting there looking over the room and watching everyone else, especially professor Saren, but Blaise and Ernie had other ideas.

"Don't you dare try anything on any of us Zabini! I'll be watching you!" Ernie's voice was stern, protective of the other people in the class, most of which were his friends and all of which were members of the DA.

"Ernie, I have no intention of doing any such thing." Blaise responded quite calmly, Harry thought, considering the current topic of conversation. Ernie seemed surprised about something, probably Blaise using his first name.

"I'll still be watching you." Ernie responded evenly.

"What is with you guys! You act as if having a Slytherin in this class is the end of the world or something!" Padma seemed shocked at such a thought.

"Well it is a magic of the mind class, and I don't want some stinking Slytherin getting all of my most precious thoughts!" Ernie was adamant, and although Harry thought it was a bit silly to think that Blaise wanted to do that to anyone, he did have a point.

"I'm curious what made you guys take this class?" Harry asked the four of them.

Blaise responded first. "I learned some meditation techniques this summer and learned a lot about mental and other forms of wandless magic, so when I saw this class I couldn't not take it. It was a formal school run class about what I had been dabbling into and finding fascinating all summer. That and to learn occlumency, because I know for a fact that some of the more dangerous and nosy Slytherins are studying Legillimency in their spare time. I suspect that the reason they are not in this class is because they don't want people to know about it. Also because they don't want someone to accidentally take any of their secrets."

Ernie responded next immediately almost challenging Blaise' statement, although Harry thought this was pointless as nothing seemed confrontational in what Blaise said. "I am taking the class because I want to learn as much magic as I can. That, and I did figure that it would be a good thing to learn about protecting my mind with he who must not be named around. And others like him." Ernie stared Blaise in the eyes obviously challenging him to respond.

"I for one simply wanted to widen my horizons. After all, what would be the point in not taking such a class if it was available? Apparently not many others agreed. I was honestly expecting a bigger class." Padma's words seemed quite reasonable, if not Hermione like. Though since she was a Ravenclaw, that wasn't exactly the most unexpected revelation.

The three looked at Harry, who should have expected them to want to know why he had joined the class. He mentally hit himself for bringing it up. He had to very quickly think of a lie to avoid blowing the cover of his occlumency lessons with Snape and his perilous connection to Voldemort. "It just seemed like an interesting class that went along with my plans to become an Auror." He thought that was pretty lame actually, since this class had nothing to do with being an Auror, and from the looks from his friends they weren't buying it either, but none of them said anything.

"So what did you guys do this summer?" Blaise asked the four of them curiously.

Padma responded first, "Studied for the most part. It was dreadfully boring, to tell you the truth, but I have to get good marks on my NEWTs to become anything important in the magical world. That, and since I wasn't first in my class," she glared at Hermione as she said this, "I have to make sure that I work extra hard to make sure I get that honor next time." It was all Harry could do to stop himself from laughing. Of course the Ravenclaws would have a rivalry with Hermione. After all, she was a Gryffindor who often did better than they did on everything academic related.

"That sounds rather dull." Ernie said with a sigh. "Not that I did anything that spectacular either. Mainly I just hung out and practiced curse dodging with a tennis ball. Me and Justin did hang out a few times too, but it was again nothing special. What about you Harry, what did you do?" It was obvious to Harry that he had deliberately avoided asking Blaise.

"I had one of the oddest summers I have had in a long time. The first half of it was spent wasting time being lazy in my room. However at the end of July I got a nasty surprise. Professor Snape delivered none other than Malfoy, Gre…Goyle and Vin…Crabbe to my doorstep. I ended up hanging out with them and Hermione while brewing a potion for Snape all summer. He said that if I successfully brewed it I could get into NEWTs Potions without an O on my OWL." Harry felt odd telling them all of that. He didn't really know why until he realized that he had never told anyone but Ron and Hermione that much about anything before. He was beginning to trust a lot more and that honestly scared him a bit.

"Ouch, having to brew a potion and hang out with Malfoy… wait did you almost call his cronies by their first names?" Ernie looked at him oddly. Harry wasn't sure what to say to that so he figured the truth would yet again suffice. He would have to figure out why he was being so honest all of a sudden. It seemed rather odd to him.

"Well I got to chatting with them over the summer and they were actually not nearly as bad as I thought they would be. If you get them away from Malfoy, other than being a bit blunt, they are actually not that bad." Ernie looked a bit taken aback at the comment and Padma looked intrigued.

"Yeah, I would have to agree. Draco's a git, but Vince and Greg aren't that bad when they aren't following him. Goodness knows, I wouldn't have survived five years dorming with the three of them if that weren't the case." Blaise started with a half grin on his face. "Now I actually had an interesting summer. I went abroad to find my roots. I found out that one of my ancestors brought back an Indian witch from the Americas and that she, not his wife, is my great great grandmother. My great great grandmother, well step great great grandmother I suppose, apparently couldn't have children for some medical reason and so was not against taking care of the wayward child. After all, he was still of wizarding blood, even if it wasn't all European." Ernie's eyes narrowed at Blaise's nonchalant comment. "More important than that was the fact that it meant that I had an entire legacy that I knew nothing about. So I did some research over the time I was at Hogwarts and eventually found out what tribe she had been from. Over the summer, I went to visit the tribe and learned quite a bit about my heritage and a very different way of viewing and doing magic. Did you know that many American Wizards and Witches don't even use wands nor even call themselves those things? I didn't until I met some of them. There are Shamans and Mages and all sorts of other neat things. I even learned a bit about wandless magic, although I admit it was rather odd. Like one charm they were doing, at least it seemed more like a charm than anything else, required all of them to sit in a circle and then smoke out of this tobacco pipe while chanting to the spirits. I tried to do this once, but I coughed when I took the pipe and so they all laughed and told me they thought I should sit it out if I couldn't handle it. My lungs agreed."

Harry had never seen Blaise this talkative before, apparently this summer of his has had a greater effect on him than anyone could have guessed. Ernie seemed a bit less wary of the Slytherin and Padma seemed simply intrigued. Harry was about to ask about that when the class ended. He was going to ask anyway on his way out but Professor Saren called out to him saying "I need to talk with you privately after class." So Harry waved bye to the rest of them. Ernie and Justin walked off towards their common room and Padma surprisingly walked off with Blaise towards the library. Terry and Michael walked towards their common rooms but not before watching Padma and Blaise suspiciously. Harry noticed that Ron, Hermione and Seamus were waiting with him and showed no inclination to leave. In fact they all seemed rather odded out. Harry noticed something too. No one had asked why he was being told to stay. He found it odd as generally being nosy was something Hogwarts students were masters of, especially Ernie Macmillan.

After everyone had left besides them, Professor Saren wasted no time talking to the four very confused Gryffindors. "You are all probably wondering why I called to you four specifically. You also may be wondering how I called for each of you individually without calling anybody else." Hermione even looked intrigued at this thought. Seamus and Ron looked quite stumped. Harry had an idea what he had done, after all he was a psionics instructor.

"Well, this was an example of some of the more interesting and useful applications of the class, purely mental communication, however that was not why I asked you four to stay. I used that trick simply because professor Dumbledore wanted this to be fairly discreet. While I doubt people won't notice you all staying later than everyone else, I am sure you can come up with some excuse on your own that will suffice that has nothing to do with me." He smiled and looked (how else could pointing your face directly at someone be described?) directly at Hermione as he said this.

"Now for the important bit. I have been asked by professor Dumbledore to instruct Harry, Ron and Hermione specifically as well as any other sixth year Gryffindors that ended up in my class in occlumency." This peaked Harry's attention. Learning occlumency from an instructor other than Snape would be preferable. And it was obvious that this man was a real specialist in the magics of the mind rather than someone with simply a knack for it.

Hermione and Ron did not look surprised. Seamus on the other hand looked completely lost. "What is occlumency and why should we specifically learn it over everyone else?" He asked

"Occlumency is the magic of defending the mind from outside invasion. It allows one to resist the effects of Obliviate, Legillimency and once one is powerful enough it can even throw off Imperius. The reasons for learning it are fairly obvious. Harry here, as well as his closest friends, are now direct enemies of Voldemort." Seamus' eyes grew wide at the uttered name and Ron still shivered slightly but was otherwise unaffected. "Because Voldemort is a skilled mental wizard, occlumency is a must for them. Because you are in a psionics class with them, and thus could through any number of things be privy to information that would be of use to him, and of course because being as close to them as you are being their dorm mate makes you a prime target for information." Seamus shivered but made no further inquiry. It was quite obvious once Harry thought about it. He thought about Dean and Neville, they should be learning this too.

"The others in the class with us will be learning it as the year goes on. You, I expect, will be practicing your spells with each other and will be more privy to the information faster and with less adult supervision around, so you all get it extra in addition to the actual class. Another thing, while you are all required to be here in the extra classes as long as you stay in psionics." Seamus looked kind of annoyed at this statement, but didn't say anything. "Your dorm mates, all of them, are welcome to come to the lessons as well. This is my doing, as I believe that that would be prudent even for those not taking my class. Only your dorm mates however. This should still be rather hush hush as to not raise too much suspicion."

He then turned to Seamus and looked at him apologetically. "Seamus, I am sorry to have to do this to you, but it really is for your safety as well as the safety of your mates here. They are required to take the class and to take these extra lessons do to their outstanding circumstances. You, on the other hand, are not required to take this. However, you are required to take it at the order and request of the headmaster as long as you continue the psionics NEWT. I will give you some more information before making you decide, and again, I greatly apologize for putting you in this situation to begin with."

He then turned to all four of them again. "In class, you will be using Penseives to hide your deepest thoughts. In this more specialized class, you will not, so you all must be willing to share with each other and with anyone else you bring in to these private lessons any and all of your thoughts, as it is likely that they could get access to anyone of them. They must also be equally willing to let you see theirs. The reason for this is that if or when Voldemort or any other legillimencer wanted to take your thoughts, you will not likely have a penseive conveniently with you to store them, especially in the time that the fairly quick legillimens charm takes to cast. For this reason, you must all practice hiding you're most secret memories, which is why it is important that you all trust each other explicitly. Also, anyone who tells anyone anything that is found out in this room without express consent from its owner will be expelled. This rule is not even courtesy of myself. It is directly from Professor Dumbledore."

He turned to Seamus again who looked positively spooked. "As you can see, it is obvious that these three trust each other enough to do this. The question is… are you willing to put yourself on the line? I can get you into another NEWT if you so choose…"

"I'll honestly have to think about it… I think so though…" He looked at Ron and Harry awkwardly before saying. "I'll really have to think about it."

"That is perfectly reasonable, although you do not have infinite time to consider it. Show up here after dinner on Friday. I will be ready for your first lesson then. Seamus, you can tell me then whether you wish to continue. Oh and as I said, please do think about bringing your other dorm mates to the sessions, as I believes it would be better for all. However, please do not tell them about this unless you intend to bring them. As I said before, it would be better to keep this under wraps for everyone involved."

He then walked over to where he was levitating at the beginning of the class, sat down and started levitating again before saying. "Good day. You four run along now."

Seamus looked rather spooked as he left the room. Harry was sure he had some secret he didn't want exposed but he wasn't sure what. Of course it also looked to him like he really wanted to take the class now more than ever. He didn't walk off as Harry had expected him too, instead he walked with the three of them quietly which in tern caused the three of them to delay their inevitable conversation about professor Saren and the assigned occlumency. Eventually Seamus broke the tension. "I really want to do this… But I…" He then really looked Harry in the eyes for what he could tell was the first time. "I don't want to…" Before either of them could respond he ran off towards Gryffindor tower leaving all of them staring in his wake.

"Well that was quite unexpected." Hermione said as Seamus disappeared around a corner. "I would have thought that he would have been perfectly okay with something like that. After all, he doesn't seem the type to harbor a secret. He always seemed rather open and actually a bit vulgar to me."

"Well, he obviously has something he's worried about people finding out." Harry looked at Hermione who had a quizzical expression on her face as he said this.

"We'll find out about that at some point, either that or he'll find another NEWT as professor Saren said. Now I'm more interested in this professor. Was I the only person who noticed just how young he was?" Ron started walking towards the common room for their free period and Harry and Hermione followed.

"No, I actually noticed that when I first saw him in the great hall during the sorting. I had no idea he was even a teacher until he sat down next to Snape and started chatting with him." Ron looked at him oddly as he mentioned Snape.

"Well, if he knows Snape, that can't be a good thing. I mean, how can we be sure he's not a death eater trying to kill Harry?" Ron seemed adamant and quite accusatory as he usually was where Snape is concerned.

"That is unlikely, after all, why would he invite us and all of our dorm mates if he wanted to kill Harry? That, and Dumbledore wouldn't let any death eaters on campus if he could avoid it." Hermione was logical as usual.

"Well there was Moody and Quirrel though, and they were quite effective at almost killing Harry," Ron said, "Speaking of which, I wonder who the new defense against the dark arts teacher is?"

Hermione looked at Ron thoughtfully before responding. "I have no idea, but it is likely not Saren if he's already another NEWTs teacher. Returning to Saren for a moment, I think we should watch him, but I don't think we have any reason to doubt him at the moment. After all, Snape may hate you and may wish you and your father never existed, but he has never tried to kill you, and he has tried to save you on multiple occasions."

Harry thought about this for a moment. Yes, that made sense, he seemed like a nice enough guy, and not every teacher Dumbledore had brought in was horrible. There was Remus Lupin after all. "Yes I agree, and since you are going to be there in the class with me, at least it's not like I am alone or anything."

"Fine! Fine!" Ron threw his hands up in the air as they reached the fat lady's portrait. "Guardian Force" the portrait opened with a slight nod at a few of its more common annoyances, "I still want to know who the new defense teacher is. We haven't exactly had the best luck in that department over the years."

Harry was glad at the change of subject. He apparently wasn't the only one curious about this either, as Dean, Seamus (who still looked a bit wary), Parvati and Lavender walked up to them. "Heard something about the new defense teacher? If anyone would know who it is, it'd be you. Come on let us in." Dean seemed excited to be let in on a secret, as did everyone else, except possibly Seamus, who was still apprehensive, presumably about the talk with Professor Saren. Unfortunately, Harry had as much clue as they did and so had to disappoint the lot of them.

"Sorry guys, but we were just wondering the same thing. Your guess is as good as ours, but as long as it's no Lockheart or…Umbridge," a universal shiver of disgust fell through the small group at the portrait hole at the horrible professor from last year's name. Harry almost felt blasphemous simply uttering the accursed thing, "I assume it will be at least okay. With our luck though…" He turned to Ron and Hermione, who had been the only people to truly know about his issues with the previous defense instructors.

"Well, I have to say that other than the fact that he tried to kill you and did kill Cedric, Moody was a decently good defense teacher." Fred chimed in after which he was promptly smacked on the head by George.

"Oh come on Fred! That's enough out of you… although he did teach us a lot though…" After that he smacked his own head similarly to how he smacked Fred's. "Bad me!" He said sillily.

Harry didn't want to think about that year. It had been the worst year of his life, even worse than his horrible last year. It had been the year his innocence had been taken away from him, that fateful day when he and Cedric had been sent to that nameless graveyard. He felt anger and pain pull themselves out of him. That hadn't been his fault. However, the fact that it wasn't made it all that much worse. At least he had someone to blame for everything last year, namely himself, but his fourth year had been orchestrated perfectly. He couldn't say that he had been fooled like his fifth year. In that year, he had simply been part of everyone else being fooled. He remembered Cedric's face as he fell to the ground expressionless. It has not been what he expected a dead body to look like. It had no signs of life at all, not even a face skewed in fear or loathing or anger. It was just there, like the corpse was the only thing that had ever existed. The person erased from the world in the blink of an eye.

He rushed upstairs as tears began to overtake him. It brought back too many bad memories. Quirrel burning at his touch, which although at the time had saved his life, when he thought about it later it had always sickened him. Quirrel, for all his problems, had been a victim of Voldemort just like everyone else was. His memory fell on Ginny and the diary. An image of Ginny's pale body as Tom Riddle drained the life out of her burned itself into his mind. It had been the first time he had witnessed death. She hadn't actually died, but he couldn't deny that that was exactly what he was seeing. Back then he didn't really understand what was going on, now he did, and it was that much more frightening, that much more saddening. Then came Sirius. He felt anger with himself with Snape, with Dumbledore even with Ron, Hermione and Ginny. He felt anger with everyone he had ever known. His mind vented itself in a rush of fresh tears as he rushed into his dorm room straight to his bed.

"Harry…" He heard Ron's voice and saw Fred and George behind him looking forlorn and guilty.

"Go away!" He yelled at them, not wanting to see them at all. Ron and Fred looked hesitant but George took them away. Both Fred and George had apologetic looks on their faces.

Harry was crying and angry at himself for crying and crying even more because of that anger. He was angry at Sirius for dying, angry at Fred and George for bringing it up, angry at Dean and Seamus for reminding him of it, angry at Ron for not being able to do anything about Sirius do to his out of it state. He was angry at Hermione for not figuring everything out and stopping him from making that crucial error, angry at Lavender and Parvati just for being there. But most of all, angry at himself, because if he wasn't born, if he hadn't been a part of that stupid prophecy, if he hadn't been so stupid as to tie with Cedric for the win and try to find what was in the Department of Mysteries when he had been told time and time again to study his occlumency. Snape had been right. It was odd, but he felt his hatred for Snape waning and he felt more anger at his own name then his professor's. Potter was a horrible legacy. It led to only death, destruction and misery. Everything he had ever seen about his parents had been bad. He had seen them die to protect him, but had that not happened, he would never have had this scar and these horrible things would never have happened. He saw his father do horrible things to Severus Snape for what he could tell was no reason. Then he was horrible to Harry's own mother, how they had gotten together was a mystery to him because he certainly couldn't imagine that brat and that beautiful smart girl liking each other at all. They had been the marauders the trouble makers of the school. But it looked like they were infinitely worse than the Weasley twins ever were. They genuinely wanted to make people laugh. He saw no such notion in his father and Sirius. They broke the rules because they could and because they wanted too.

His mind became foggy and lost all line of coherent thought as his conflicted emotions about the people he loved and yet hated at the same time filled it, blinding him to anything else. He felt someone site next to him but he didn't know who it was and strangely he didn't have any feeling towards the person at all. Another person sat next to him on his other side one who he knew but didn't hate for some reason.

"Are you ok Harry?" Neville asked from his right.

"Yeah, are you?" The two voices brought him out of his block and he fell backwards laying across his bed crying. He couldn't really feel anything other than the tears. Neville and Wesley just sat there with him. He didn't realize how much he needed that. Wesley had not been a part of any of this, and so he was a great neutral wall to brace himself upon while Neville was the only person who he knew honestly could understand a similar kind of pain he had been through. With Wesley as his emotional bridge back to himself and Neville coaxing him along it with his friendly but concerned face, he felt himself leveling out, his anger and sadness fading back into his mind's ether where it started.

"Are you ok?" Neville repeated. Wesley remained silent, simply looking at him with a concerned look.

"I think so… Thanks." Harry smiled at his two friends, as whether he was before, Wesley was certainly a friend now. Being one's bridge back to himself is not something easily forgotten. Neville was now even closer to him than ever. He knew what he had to do, he wasn't exactly ready to tell anyone else this, but he was going to tell Neville the prophecy. He deserved to know it as he was a part of it whether it referenced him or not. After all, it had been part of the reason his parent were made insane.

Ron, Fred and George entered the room cautiously followed by Hermione, who also looked quite concerned. Seamus and Dean followed equally cautiously. "Are you ok?" Ron asked, echoing Neville's tone almost exactly.

"Yeah, I think I am, thanks to these two." He said nodding at Wesley and Neville. "Now I'm tired and I have both potions and defense against the dark arts tomorrow so I'm going to sleep."

"I'm sorry about that." Fred and George looked horribly identical and Harry was unsure which of them had said that but it looked like it didn't matter. It was simply that one of them had beaten the other to what was written on both of their faces.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Wouldn't want another morning like this one!" Seamus smiled and jumped on Harry's bed between Neville and Harry where he draped his arm over his dorm mates in a brotherly fashion. Dean simply laughed at his friends shenanigans and it wasn't long before all eight of them were laughing.

Hermione, who had been silent the whole time, mouthed 'we'll talk later' before leaving.

Harry felt a lot closer to his less known dorm mates than he had ever felt before. He looked at Ron, who looked completely horrible. He would have to bridge that soon as well. Despite everything he had told himself, it was not Ron's fault, and now that he had gotten over that bit of emotional outburst, he knew he would have to patch things up with him. He hadn't had enough contact with the boy last year and his friendship was becoming less and less personal. He thought about where and when he would talk to Ron about this as the group got up to go off to dinner, oddly happy considering what had just transpired.


	8. Worse then Better

Breakfast was an oddly calming experience considering that he and Neville were about to go off to their potions NEWT. Neville was incredibly agitated at the thought of having to deal with Snape when he really didn't want to. While Harry seconded his thoughts, it still didn't do anything to improve his own agitated feeling that this was not going to go so well. Snape would not be happy that his two least favorite Gryffindor students had slithered their way into his class. There would be retribution, of that he was certain. Worse, it wouldn't just be against them, it would be against Gryffindor house, he was sure of that to. Oddly enough however, there were more Gryffindors in the class then he expected. He didn't know who else was good at potions, but with the outstanding Owl requirements and Snape's harsh biased grading, he was certain it would be a small class. However small the class was, there were still going to be four Gryffindors: himself, Hermione, Neville and to his surprise, Wesley.

He knew this because Wesley had asked him about the potions class during dinner after the unfortunate incident the previous evening. He and Ron had gone on their standard anti-Snape rant for most of the meal. Harry wasn't sure if it had been helpful as afterwards Wesley had looked scared more than anything. Harry was actually looking forward to having a class with his new dorm mate and friend as he really didn't know all that much about the guy.

"Hope you survive class. Don't take anything he or Malfoy offers to you. I don't think he is past poisoning you to get you out of his class." Ron said rather morbidly as they left breakfast for class and he headed off towards the common room for his free period.

Wesley looked even more scared after that. "What did he mean by that?" He asked shakily.

"Oh, that was just Ron ranting. Snape wouldn't poison you… too much anyway." Harry responded in an equally morbid tone.

"Yeah… at least he hasn't yet." Neville was still shaking, so his attempt the lightening the feel of the group had the exact opposite effect on Wesley, who looked more terrified than ever.

"Oh shut it you two." Hermione said in her standard annoyed, studious tone. "Snape is a horrible person and an equally biased one, so you better watch out for him. He'll point out every little problem with a potion and will not hesitate to give you detention or take away house points. He'll threaten to do any number of things to you, but he has never, to my knowledge, actually hurt a student in class."

Wesley relaxed quite a bit at Hermione's words. "So he's an asshole whose bark is worse than his bite?"

"Essentially." That calmed him considerably and they spent the rest of the walk to the potions room in silence. As usual for the Gryffindors, they were the last ones there, as all of them, even Hermione, wanted to avoid Snape for as long as humanly possible.

As Harry had expected, the class was quite small. It wasn't quite as small as the Psionics class, but it wasn't exceptionally huge either. There were only three Slytherins, something that surprised Harry. Apparently he graded his own house just as harshly as everyone else, as the only Slytherins he saw in the room with them were Pansy Parkinson, Blaise Zabini and, of course, Draco Malfoy. Also in the room with him were Hannah Abbot and Justin, who also surprised Harry with his presence. Unsurprisingly, the majority of the class was Ravenclaws including Padma Patil, Anthony Goldstein, Michael Corner and Lisa Turpin as well as one other Harry didn't recognize that much. Everyone was milling around looking at the room as Snape had not showed up yet. The room itself was arranged completely differently. Instead of the tables like there were in their OWLs classes, there were seven large cauldrons with small ingredients boards sticking out of them set up evenly spaced around the room, except for one which was separated from the rest. Considering that there were fourteen students in the class, Harry grudgingly assumed that they would be in partners and that one Cauldron to the side was for Neville. After all, Snape seemed to have a particularly nasty trend where he was concerned, even more so than with Harry. At least there was a reason for his mistreatment, Neville just seemed to get on his bad side very quickly and stayed there.

No one knew what to do, as there were no chairs by the cauldrons to sit in. This also didn't bode well. Mixing potions with Snape for almost two hours without a place to sit was not something Harry was looking forward too. No one said anything while they waited for Snape. Harry thought this spoke wonders for Malfoy, who merely sneered in their direction but didn't actually say anything. Harry was certain that this was because Vincent and Gregory were not present and the majority of the people in the class were not only non Slytherin, but also Harry friendly.

It was at least ten minutes before Snape showed up at the door of his classroom, the trademark sneer on his face. Unsurprisingly, he turned immediately to the Gryffindors. "And why Mr. Potter, have you not stood by a cauldron as is obviously implied by their layout?" All the other students quickly rushed to the cauldrons to avoid a similar fate. Harry slowly walked towards him careful not to avoid Snape's look in any way. The last thing he needed was to give Snape another reason to take points away from Gryffindor, or even worse, remove him from the class before he had even started it. As he neared his professor he clandestinely handed the man the vial containing the Polyjuice potion he had brewed over the summer. Snape simply nodded before saying, "Why are you not at your cauldron yet Mr. Potter? That's ten points from Gryffindor, and if I ever see you dawdling again you will be removed from this course."

Harry was not surprised by this in the least, nor did it bother him in any way. After a whole month with Malfoy, Snape didn't seem too horrible anymore. Little did he know how wrong that initial assessment was. Harry took a place at the same cauldron as Wesley, Neville having already snagged the one Hermione was at while they were talking, mistake number one. "I told you to go to your cauldron, not the cauldron of the American! That's ten more points from Gryffindor! And since none of you are at your correct cauldrons, that's ten more points for each of you!" Harry stared at him. He had just removed fifty points from Gryffindor in the first five minutes of him being in the classroom because they weren't at their correct placement when he hadn't even told them what their correct placements were. It only got worse from there.

"Finch-Fletchley! Ten points form Hufflepuff for not being in the correct place. You are with Draco Malfoy… Well! Hurry and go to your cauldron then!" Harry watched as Justin scurried over to where Draco was standing. Harry also noticed that none of the Slytherins had chosen the same cauldron and that Pansy and Malfoy were grinning evilly. Blaise looked quite bored. It was obvious that they knew ahead of time what was going to happen, otherwise they would have never all chosen different placements. Pansy and Malfoy had been working together before this forever.

Snape went through the rest of the names quickly and as expected no one but the Slytherins were in the right place, losing Hufflepuff another ten points and Ravenclaw an astounding fifty before even the first ingredients had been set on the cauldron boards. By the time he reached Harry, in addition to pairing Justin with Malfoy, he had paired Hermione with Pansy, Terry with Hannah, Padma with Michael, Anthony with the random Ravenclaw he didn't know, and Wesley with Blaise. Snape had the same vindictive smirk he'd had on his face when he had delivered Malfoy, Vincent and Gregory to him this summer as he approached Harry and Neville, obviously preparing to rub it in immensely that he was partnering them together and assigning them the wayward cauldron.

"Now, for the famous boy who lived, who seems to be able to weasel his way out of any predicament. Seeing as both you and Mr. Longbottom have somehow managed to get into this class when neither has even close to the qualifications, I have assigned you together so that we will have no problems with breaking up other pairs. That is assuming that you do not destroy yourselves with a wayward potion first." Harry new exactly what this meant, both he and Neville were being expected to fail the course. The only problem was that with Neville as his partner and Hermione on the other side of the room (again it seemed like this was done purposely) that might just happen. Neville seemed to notice this as well and was shaking with fear as much as ever.

After everyone was in the right place, and all non Slytherin decent moods had been erased, Snape walked to the head of the classroom and instead of writing the ingredients on the board as he had done previously, he started listing them off incredibly quickly. Harry rushed to get out a scroll and quill but by the time he and Neville had managed to organize themselves on the little ingredients board, which was barely big enough for one person to write on let alone two, he had already missed half of the potion. Apparently, he and Neville didn't have to worry about being the targets of Snape's current rant as his eyes had already zeroed in on Wesley, who was frantically writing on a scroll with his pen.

"And what is this?" Snape said as he snatched the pen out of a now horrified Wesley's hands. "You will use no such unworthy item in this class. Where is your quill?"

Wesley's face burned almost crimson shade of pink. "Um, sir, I never learned to write with a quill…"

"What are they teaching you in those American schools then? Certainly nothing useful if you aren't even learning something as basic as quillmanship! I will not have someone using a muggle pen in my classroom!"

"But sir Dumble…" Harry could tell this was just going form bad to worse. Apparently he and Neville were not going to be the only ones in this class on his bad list, especially now that Wesley had questioned Snape's authority.

"I do not see any professor in this classroom besides myself. Whatever may have been said before is irrelevant and I will be taking thirty points from Gryffindor for your bad attitude and an additional ten points for being unprepared for class. I will let you sit in the class today and make the potion, but you better have a quill and ink next time or you will be sent out of this room until you do! Is that understood?" Wesley only nodded sheepishly as he put his now useless half written scroll back into his backpack. "Oh and remove this from my sight!" Snape finished, tossing Wesley's pen onto the ingredients board before he walked towards the front of the room, never losing his vindictive smirk. Wesley shoved the pen behind his ear mindlessly but made sure to cover as much of it as he could with his rather short hair so it could barely be seen. Harry hoped that would be enough. He was used to this sort of treatment from Snape, Wesley obviously was not.

"Now that that is done with, I trust that you have all written down the instructions to the potion?" He asked suggestively. He had to know that someone had missed it, after all, he had stated it without telling anyone to get out anything and without any hint of a warning whatsoever, especially considering that he had always had complex potions written on the board before.

Justin raised his hand causing Snape to immediately head toward his cauldron almost triumphantly. "I missed the first half of it."

"Ah Mr. Finch-Fletchley. And why were you not prepared for class? You had the sense to bring your quill and papyrus, so it is obviously not for a lack of trying." He sneered in Wesley's direction as he said this. Harry was relieved he and Neville had still somehow managed to avoid detection. Justin intelligently didn't answer. "Ah well then, I suppose I will have to repeat myself again. Potter!" Harry looked up at him, so he wasn't going to spend the entire class ignoring him then. "Get up here and write the instructions of the potion on the board. Try and keep up as your fellow students are relying on you." Harry did not like the sound of that so he rushed up as quickly as possible.

He was glad he had, as Snape then stated the instructions of the potion again, but he did it so fast that Harry barely had enough time to write them all and his wrist was immensely tired. He hoped he hadn't missed anything now that Snape had actually made him do something. It would set the mood for the entire year, he was sure of that. Snape looked at what he had written then sneered, obviously not finding anything wrong with it. "That will be all Mr. Potter." He said in a rather annoyed fashion.

"This potion is a simple anti vampire draught that will make anyone who drinks its blood taste bitter to the undead. It will also burn vampires and the children of vampires if they are splashed by or immersed in it. Be careful. Even though it is not difficult to make, there are a few easy to make mistakes that make this particular potion rather dangerous. Nothing deadly, but you would likely have to spend the remainder of the week in the hospital wing. Now, all of you get started and I don't want to hear a single word uttered to anyone who is not at your cauldron." With that he started walking the room looking at everyone's potions in his usual fashion.

The potion itself was not actually difficult, Snape had not been lying when he said that. However it was incredibly time consuming and required meticulous chopping and organization of its ingredients, something Harry was finding incredibly difficult with the small area and Neville's constant errors. Harry could see now why Snape picked on him so much. In potions Neville was, simply put, a disaster. He almost chopped off Harry's fingers while trying to chop up wolfs bane and then nearly chopped off his own while slicing the coagulated sheep blood because he was shaking so much. After that, Harry had declined to let him use the knife, content that neither of them would be very capable of finishing the potion let alone anything else if they didn't have fingers. Snape had come by their table a couple of times, but apparently they had not done anything yet to warrant a reprimand. Though, with how the potion was shaping up, Harry was sure this wasn't going to be true for long.

After they were done chopping up their ingredients and sorting them into the relevant piles in order to make sure to add the right stuff when there was even more trouble. Neville seemed to be paying much more attention to what Snape was doing than what he was and had nearly added the completely wrong ingredient three or four times before Harry decided to finish the potion on his own and let Neville simply watch Snape in fear of what he would do next. Harry was not sure how he was going to get through the year with Neville as a partner. It was only even more obvious than it was before why Snape loathed him so, with his obvious fear of his potions professor he was a wrecking ball as far as potions were concerned. Harry would have to rectify the situation if he ever wanted to pass the class. He would talk to Neville about it later.

The potion looked the right color according to the description that he himself had written up on the board, so he started the long tedious process of stirring it. While he was doing that he watched the other groups as it required virtually no effort. It didn't really matter how fast or how vigorously one stirred the potion as long as it was stirred for the entire forty five minute time that it was over the fire. As Harry had expected, Hermione was stirring the potions rather meticulously while Pansy simply admired her nails. He had glanced over that way a couple of times during the class and it seemed that Hermione was doing all the work and Pansy was just sitting there reaping the benefits of having her for a partner. Wesley and Blaise seemed to be working together rather flawlessly considering, and they were at the moment taking turns stirring the potions and chatting merrily about who knows what. Malfoy and Justin, as expected, were not working well together at all. It looked like Malfoy was trying to get Justin to do all the work while he supervised. Justin, on the other hand, was refusing to do everything and so they had spent nearly the entire period arguing. They had somehow managed to get all the ingredients together and now Malfoy was stirring the potion with a very irritated expression on his face. Justin had an equally irritated one and he looked like he was meticulously making sure that they had not missed anything by checking his scroll and then looking at the potion and the ingredients board. The remaining pairs were working completely fine, as he expected, and he didn't really notice them as much as the obvious Slytherin pairings. Although at the moment he would have preferred Malfoy or Blaise to Neville. Neville was a good friend, but until he got over his irrational fear of Snape he would never be good at doing anything with potions other than melting cauldrons.

After everyone had been stirring their potions for about forty five minutes, Snape started wandering the classroom looking at the presumably finished potions. He dipped his finger in a few of them and tasted yet a few more. He sneered at Blaise and Wesley's potion, apparently it had nothing wrong with it, and then praised Blaise while completely ignoring his partner. Pansy also got the praise for their potion despite that Hermione seemed to do all the work. Malfoy and Justin had managed to get the potion completely the wrong color, an ugly shade of neon green rather than the crimson blood red it was supposed to be, and of course Snape has admonished Justin ignoring Malfoy. Hufflepuff lost another twenty points by the end of that. He had gone to all the other groups, finding minute things to complain about their potions (they after all didn't have any Slytherin's in their groups, so he didn't have to worry about misplaced admonishment or praise). Last he came to Harry and Neville's potion, which Harry thought was perfect. Even with Neville's constant mistakes, Harry had managed to pull them together enough to get the potion done exactly as it was written on the board. The question now was what Snape would inevitably find wrong with it. He looked at it and then stuck one finger in it as he had done with most of the other potions. He swirled it around dramatically and then tasted the blood like substance. "Potter, Potter, Potter! If you are going to make this potion correctly you must use a drop of your own blood or some blood from a living human in order to make it truly effective. This potion is useless against any vampire of note!"

Harry was appalled. He knew for a fact that Snape had not mentioned this at all when he had given them the recipe, nor had he insinuated anything of the sort. "However, this is easily rectified simply add the ingredient now." Harry looked at him oddly before taking his knife and pricking the end of his finger with it. He then let a drop of his blood fall into the potion, at which point it basically instantly solidified into a quite gooey substance.

"Ah, well." Snape then turned to the rest of the class. "I am appalled with most of your work! I purposely left out that ingredient because you were supposed to have read up on that particular potion over the summer. I see the only people to do so are Mr. Zabini and Ms. Parkinson." Harry felt like an idiot, he had in fact read about the potion over summer, but he had been so busy trying to stop Neville from ruining it that he completely forgot all but what he had written on the board. "If you are at all serious about succeeding in this class, then you all must do much better than you showed today. After adding your final ingredients you may go. Except for you Finch-Fletchley, you are going to have to stay after class and remake the potion correctly. Mr. Potter, Mr. Zabini, Mr. Tinderspoon, since you obviously have a perfect grasp on the potion, you will stay behind and help him. Since none of you apparently read anything over the summer, I want all of you to write me six feet of parchment on the subject of Vampires and their kin. Now off with you."

Hermione and Neville waved at him as they left. Neville had a very ominous expression on his face. After everyone but Snape had left the room he turned to the four students and smiled. "I am quite pleased with your work today, all four of you." _Wait…did he just say that?_ "Now I must go. You will make sure the potions lab is clean before you leave. And make sure that you bottle up every last drop of that potion." He then left the four of them to their own devices.

"Um…did that just happen?" Justin said, his annoyed look becoming one of complete confusion.

"I guess that was a bit odd now wasn't it?" Harry responded as he started getting out the ingredients for the potion in question.

"Well, it did look like your potion and our potion were the best Harry. Although, why Justin is here I have no idea." Blaise looked at him oddly.

"Hey, that was all Malfoy's fault! I know this potion like the back of my hand. I need to in order to become a healer. It is the only thing that can potentially combat vampirism." Justin was adamant.

"This still doesn't answer the question of why would Snape wants us to bottle all of the potion up," Wesley said, "are we expecting the school to be attacked by vampires or something?"

Harry didn't know how to respond. He wouldn't at all be surprised if that was exactly why they made this potion. This thought did nothing to relax him, after all, it was an important question. Why would anyone need this much of a potion designed to battle something so rare?

"Well, I suppose that me and someone should start working on that last batch of potion while the others start bottling." Justin said as he headed towards the ingredients shelf to gather the required stuff. Blaise volunteered to help with the potion, leaving Harry and Wesley to their own devices and a box full of empty vials.

"I guess we should get started, since we are going to want time get clean for lunch after this." Wesley said as he started ladling the very thick potion into a vial. "This is going to take forever…" Wesley was right, this was going to take forever. But Harry started filling up the vials anyway while Justin and Blaise worked painstakingly on making sure they would only have to remake the potion again once.

Harry was curious about Blaise still, and seeing as how Wesley had just worked and talked with him for almost two hours and had showed a rather unbiased opinion as far as Slytherins go, he was the perfect candidate to ask about him. “I saw you talking to Blaise while you were working, what's he like?”

Wesley shrugged, "Well, he seems completely nice to me, not at all like how you describe Slytherins. We both already knew the potion. I was taught it in ninth grade alchemistry… I suppose the potions equivalent, although we worked with muggle chemistry a bit in that class as well. I have no idea where Blaise knew it from, but since we both already knew it, it was incredibly easy. We spent the entire rest of the time just chatting about each other and school and stuff. Nothing too personal really." Harry still got mixed messages from Wesley. It was weird how he talked still like he had a lot to say and he loved to talk and be friendly with people and yet he talked very fast and with an air of expectation that they might drop him at the drop of a hat. "Harry? Ok, well I guess I'll stop bothering you and go vial up another cauldron."

Harry smiled at him and said, "No, I enjoy talking with you. Sorry, I was just noticing that you talk quickly and you seem a bit nervous." _More like VERY nervous._ Harry thought to himself.

"Sorry, I wasn't exactly the most popular kid at my old school… Actually, saying I wasn't popular would be an understatement as with the exception of my brother and my best friend, pretty much everyone there was cautious of me at best. I guess I'm just waiting for the second shoe to drop. It always does." Wesley looked like he was a victim of much more than simple school social issues, as that was very much the same as Harry's school experience before Hogwarts. But it sounded from Wesley's tone as if it were just a facet of a bigger problem. It implied that for him things had always been that way. Harry understood that all too well. His first year Hogwarts letter wasn't addressed to 'Harry Potter Number 4 Privet Drive The little cupboard under the stairs' for nothing. Harry wasn't sure how to respond though, so he just put his hand on Wesley's shoulder, smiled and then continued working.

They worked in silence for a while and by the time Snape returned they had bottled up four of the six remaining cauldrons. Justin and Blaise, who seemed to work much better together than he and Malfoy ever could, had finished the potion and were now talking in a rather friendly manner. Of course. considering that Blaise simply seemed nicer than Malfoy did help with that. He thought almost anyone would be better to work with than Malfoy. At least Pansy would just sit there and let you do the potion on your own. Snape wasn't alone when he returned, Leon Saren was with him. Professor Saren and Snape walked over to one of the still full cauldrons and Saren put his finger into it, then waited for few seconds before putting the tip on his finger in his mouth and then nodding. Snape nodded back and he left quite quickly. "That will be all. I will finish bottling up the potion."

The four students rushed quickly back to their common rooms so that they could get clean and get clean robes on before going to lunch. Harry and Wesley left Blaise and Justin at a flight of stairs and rushed up them, hoping to god that the staircases decided to remain stable as they were cutting the beginning of lunch close enough already. Harry ran down a corridor and then darted through a hidden door behind a tapestry that he remembered from using the Marauders Map. Wesley just raised an eyebrow at that but followed anyway. They didn't talk the whole way, they were in such a hurry. Since Harry knew the castle better, Wesley followed him and in almost no time at all they were back at the portrait of the fat lady, out of which there was coming a conveniently placed student. Dennis Creevy pushed himself into the side wall as the bigger, older boys ran past him. Harry was glad the boy was too shocked to ask him anything as the last thing he needed at that moment was being assaulted by one of the Creevys.

They rushed to the sixth year Gryffindor dorm where they found Fred and George, who to Harry's Knowledge had been no where near the potions lab his entire class. Rather than worry about why they were there and why they hadn't been in class with him this one time, he yanked off his robes and ran into the bathroom to take a shower. Wesley just gaped at him before saying, "I'll just wait..." and blushed slightly.

"And why would you do that?" Harry asked confusedly. "We're dorm mates, no use hiding anything here." Then he went into the showers to get clean being followed by a very self conscious looking Wesley. Harry was not surprised when Wesley took the shower furthest away form him on the opposite corner of the shower room. It was obvious that he would have rather had his own stall but that was that. It was odd though, because he seemed rather uncomfortable in there cleaning himself and it wasn't like he was emotionally uncomfortable showering with another boy, it was more like he was physically uncomfortable with it. Of course, Harry was spending much more time cleaning himself then worrying about his odd new dorm mate, so he could have been wrong. Wesley came out of the shower looking a lot happier only a minute or so after Harry. He looked sparkling clean, a lot cleaner than he was before and Harry would have assumed he had just use Scourgify, but he hadn't had his wand, so how could he?

"You ready?" The enigma of a boy asked. "I am getting rather hungry."

"Ok, let's go then." Harry still liked him though, even if he wasn't the most open person. After all, Harry understood what it was like to harbor secrets. He had been doing that since way before he knew any of the people here.

" _Hello, how are you this morning?_ " Harry jumped as he heard the familiar voice of Wesley's snake.

" _Sorry I didn't respond two days ago. It isn't exactly the best thing being a parsel mouth around here._ " Harry responded to the small creature.

" _I understand, after all, he is my master. I do hope he opens up to you and your friends however. I listen to you and you seem very nice._ "

Harry was surprised at that, " _You can understand human speech?_ "

" _No, but I am a snake. I can feel at least some of your emotions and you don't seem scared of him in the slightest, something he rarely got at home._ "

Harry pondered at this a second before answering. " _Why were people afraid of him? Is there something about him I should be scared of?_ "

The snake let out what Harry could only describe as the parsel tongue equivalent of a laugh before saying. " _Yes, I suppose that you and your friends have something to worry about. But then again, wouldn't this conversation right here be deemed something to worry about as well? I bet he would be considered similar, maybe better, maybe worse, but in any case you have to ask yourself: What makes the man, his body, or the smile on his face?_ "

Harry stopped to ponder this before he noticed the look on Wesley's face. He had forgotten he was there for a second, which was odd considering he was talking to a snake that he couldn't even see. "So what's the old bugger got to say?" Wesley asked before producing the small snake and letting it wrap itself around his finger.

"He seems to really like you." Harry said in a calm tone.

"Well I know that. He has never once tried to leave. You know he came up to me not the other way around? Yeah I know he likes me… But anything else? Maybe something spooky or interesting? I have always wanted to know what he thinks about."

Harry didn't know how to respond, after all they were just talking about him. "Well actually we were talking about you…"

Wesley's smile faltered for a second before he said. "So…" in a slightly more wary tone.

"Oh, he just said a few vague things about you, nothing to worry about really. So are you in defense against the dark arts class too?" Changing the subject seemed a prudent course of action.

Wesley looked at Harry warily once more before responding. "Yeah I am, and I can't wait! I have always loved the jinx and counter curse classes at my school, but we never really learned anything about real battling. A true defense against the dark arts class would be awesome!"

Harry wasn't sure how to respond to this. He did, after all, remember all of his previous teachers only two of which actually taught defense against the dark arts. Quirrell had been too scared of his shadow to do anything but nervously talk, of course that was likely do to the fact that he had to hide that he had a dark lord attached to the back of his head. Lockheart had been as useless as they come, not knowing anything about actual dark arts and Umbridge had been barely effective at teaching from her own books, which were useless anyway. He had no idea who the new teacher was going to be, he figured it would be someone form the order, however who that would be was anyone's guess. Especially considering that he probably didn't even know half of them. "Well, we'll both be finding out then. I have had a couple good defense teachers here but most of them have been horrible." Harry finally decided on the truth.

"Oh." was Wesley's only response.

They continued chatting idly about any which thing that came to mind as they hurried down to lunch. When they got there, they went and sat down between Ron and Hermione in what apparently was now their regular seating arrangement. "Hey Harry, I know we all have defense against the dark arts next and I thought of something in case the teacher is well… Centaur bait like in some way or another." Centaur bait… Harry liked Neville's nickname for the unmentionable abomination of a teacher that was Umbridge. Neville then produced a gold galleon and flung it onto the table in front of his dorm mates. Harry understood immediately. It was the same gold Galleon that Hermione had given out to all the DA members the previous year. Seamus and Dean stopped chatting at this point to listen in excitedly. Lucky for them, even though they were caught and their location and members detained, they had never caught on to the Galleon communications device and so, especially now with Umbridge gone and Fudge not on Harry's back like a hawk, they could start up the DA again. And in these pressing times, Harry was sure they were going to need it. That, and even though Harry wasn't to keen on the idea when it had first been brought up and hadn't exactly liked it the entire time because of all the contact with so many different students, he had had an entire summer to think about it and now he realized that that was the best thing that had happened that entire year. Maybe even the best thing he had accomplished in all of his time at Hogwarts.

"Actually," Harry started, "I plan on doing that anyway." He motioned all of his dorm mates and Hermione together before whispering quickly. "Linger after lunch and we'll discuss it then."

Wesley gave them a raised eyebrow as if to say "me too?" Harry made no attempt to tell him yes or no. He honestly did not care if he stuck around or not. He was going to invite him to the DA after he had it done. But right now he would rather wait to include the boy unless he was curious enough to ask on his own. After all, he didn't want to risk getting caught before he even started by talking too much about it.

It was then that a big pair of hands draped themselves around Harry and Ron and another pair around Wesley and Hermione. Fred and George Weasley had shown up at the table. Harry was actually surprised at this he had assumed that they had been there the entire time. Harry had found himself noticing them less and less as they spent more time together. He hadn't even noticed that they hadn't been with him all morning. "Hello Harry, what's up?" George said with his curious and 'innocent' smile.

Fred on the other hand noticed the Galleon on the table and raised his eyebrow his mouth curving into his more mischievous smirk. "The Army marches again then?" He said in a whisper into Harry's ear. Harry smiled slightly and nodded. Then the Weasley twins sat between Harry and Ron and Hermione and Wesley for lunch.

"Sorry about that Harry, but Snape absolutely refused to let us sit in on his class, even to protect the boy who lived. He said that he could provide all the protection you needed."

"Of course that wouldn't protect you from him, but we decided it would be more prudent to ignore that line of thought entirely." Fred chimed in merrily after George's explanation. "So we took the opportunity to check out how Lee was doing with our store. That took longer than expected because of a few mishaps along the way."

"Nothing we couldn't handle of course." George smiled as he cut off his brother in their usual fashion. "We would appreciate it if you didn't tell mum about this. She'd have us removed from the job in a heartbeat."

Harry agreed and they spent the rest of lunch chatting idly about this and that to bide their time until lunch ended so they could chat on the way to defense against the dark arts. Which they all agreed would be at the very least an interesting if not horrible experience. If they had learned anything it was that their defense classes were rarely boring. Nope, boring classes were professor Binns' job. Even divination with professor Trelawny was hardly boring if you actually listened to the crazy things she said. That woman would leave you laughing for months. That is if you lived that long, as according to her everyone was going to die at least two times a week.

Eventually the end of lunch came and right as it was about to end the group of sixth year Gryffindors filled up their plates again right as the food was disappearing. They began to munch on this while waiting for everyone to leave. Wesley had apparently decided to wait and see what was going on as he had gotten a last glass of pumpkin juice as everyone else was filling up their plate and was now sipping it quietly while watching the small group. Once everyone else in the room had left besides Saren and Snape, who were still at the teachers table talking but ignoring the small group of students, they stood up and began slowly walking towards their defense class while quietly talking about the DA. "Okay, so I figured you all would want to do the DA again, and I didn't have any time to finish everything I wanted to teach last year." Harry said to the group.

"What's this DA?" Wesley asked.

"Well, you know how I mentioned earlier that we have had crappy defense against the dark arts instructors?"

"Yeah…"

"Well we decided to start our own club for teaching students who really wanted to learn how to REALLY defend themselves against the dark arts. I was teaching it for obvious reasons."

"Cool! I'm definitely in." He said excitedly.

Hermione, the ever prepared one, produced a Galleon from her pocket and gave it to him. He gaped at it questioningly. "It's not real." She said, "The serial number on it changes to show the next date and then it gets warm to alert that it has changed."

The boys looked at Hermione, "Well I figured we would do it again now that Umbridge is gone as even if we do actually get a competent defense teacher we are still incredibly behind in those classes. So I think we should do it again regardless of who the new teacher is. And of course given this line of thought, it was only natural that I make more of these little things as I wouldn't expect everyone to not lose theirs and even if no one did there is always the prospect of new members, especially among first years." Harry wanted to be surprised at this, he really did, but he knew Hermione too well for that and other than a slight bit of shock at actually seeing the new Galleon, he found that he would have found it odder had she not considered this during the summer. After all, this had originally been her idea.

"Well then, let's get to class shall we? Might as well get this done faster rather than slower that way if it's horrible… which it will likely be, then we have it done, and if not, then that's all the better." Ron's voice sounded quite Hermione like when he said that and Harry wondered again as he had in the past exactly how much Hermione had rubbed off on them.

Everyone nodded and so the group of eight quickly headed towards the sixth year NEWTs Auditorium where the larger NEWTs were held. Harry had never hard of this place before nor had he seen it anywhere. His only memory of this was a large room on the marauder's map which sometimes had a large number of older students in it. But he hadn't paid much attention to it because he had always been doing more pressing things at the time and he was glad that so many people were in one room because it left the corridors more open for whatever he was doing.

Harry would have spent more time finding out that the auditorium was a rather boring empty room, but he, Ron, and Hermione were to busy staring at the woman in front of the room. For standing on front of the room on top of a stage at the back of it was none other then the young metamorphmagus, Nymphadora Tonks. Fred and George seemed to have similar but less shocked reactions to the woman. Being friends of hers, they walked up to the front of the classroom where there were still empty seats and sat down. Harry was wary of the desk with the chair by it and the lamp on it as well as the suit of armor with what looked like a recently shined and likely sharpened sword on it. She was obviously a good Auror, but she was also clumsier when walking than Neville was with a wand.

As soon as they sat down, she winked in their direction, acknowledging their presence. As soon as Harry got over the shock of seeing her there, this had been the last person he had expected for defense against the dark arts, he began looking around the room. The room itself was pretty nondescript, other than being big and having a stage, there wasn't much else in it. There was a large shield on the back wall with the emblems of the four houses on it and there were windows all along the very top of the room which allowed in just a bit of sunlight. There were torches right below the windows providing the main light source. Also on the stage was the desk with a lamp and a chair, a suit of armor, two tables set up adjacent to each other each with two benches and rather large statues of an Eagle, a Lion, a Badger and a Snake on each corner of the stage, each of them facing the center. All things considered, the room was relatively tame compared to many of the other rooms that Harry had seen at Hogwarts.

He then looked at the other students in the room and noticed that almost the entire sixth year class was there. He also noticed that every sixth year member of the DA was also here. Justin, Hannah and Ernie even waved at him when they caught his eye. Harry also saw to his dismay that Malfoy, Millicent Bulstrode and Pansy Parkinson were also in the class. However, he also noticed Blaise sitting by himself in the corner of the room with almost no one near him. Vincent and Gregory were at Malfoy's side as expected. Harry wondered how so many people had made the requirements for the NEWT level class. He had expected all of the DA to do it as they had actually gotten practical experience on the subject, but after Umbridge, not to mention the majority of the previous instructors, he didn't really see how most of the students had passed the OWL at all let alone gotten a high enough score to get into this NEWT. "I wonder what she is going to teach?" Fred's voice startled Harry who had no answer to his question. Fred and George were back at his side each one taking a place on opposite sides of the other sixth year Gryffindors. Fred sat next to Harry and George was next to Dean on the opposite side of the row.

After a little while people stopped trickling in. At that point Tonks walked forward in what could have been an incredibly graceful move had it not been her doing it. Instead, she had managed in one step to not only trip over a chair, but also knock over the desk with the lamp on it and start a fire right there on the floor of the stage. After that, she swore and vanished the fire with her wand. Everyone but Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred and George were staring at her like she was a little green alien from the moon. Ron, Fred and George were trying not to laugh. Harry, having expected this or something like it, was just sitting there waiting for class to continue and Hermione was eying the laughing Weasleys with disdain. Tonks of course seemed wholly unaffected by her previous mishap and simply grimaced rubbing her shin where she had hit the poor now broken chair before smiling at the shocked students. "Sorry about that. I can be a tad Clumsy." Harry almost joined in the Weasley's snickering at that gross understatement. Tonks was the most klutzy person he had ever met. "I am your new defense against the dark arts instructor, Professor Tonks." She then walked towards the front of the stage, intelligently avoiding getting near anything else she could knock over. Harry was afraid that she would trip and fall right off the stage, but thankfully her step did not falter as she started up the class.

"For those of you who might wonder about my qualifications to teach the class, I was an Auror until I decided to take up this position." She then smiled again before saying. "But of course you don't want to hear about that. You are all NEWT level students who want to start waving wands!" She waved her wand in the students' direction playfully. It was amusing watching the students cower away from her wand as if she were going to accidentally curse them. Harry knew form experience that regardless of whether she could walk through a hallway without knocking something over, she was great with a wand and the likelihood of her making such a mistake with it was low.

Her expression got more serious, "Now everyone get out your wands, stand up and then banish your desks to the edge of the room." Harry stood up and hoped he could get the banishing charm he had learned fourth year right. He did manage to not make too big a noise when his desk crashed into the other desks that had previously been banished. Quite a few of the desks broke as people couldn't control the charm yet and most of the others made a large crashing sound. Hermione and Padma were the only students whose desks stopped cleanly next to the wall without a sound. Of course they were crushed by the other desks that were banished after them, so in the end it didn't matter. The majority of the desks had either been crushed by their banisher or crushed by another desk and thus were now useless piles of wood. "Hmm…" she said after the fiasco. "We're going to have to work on that one…

"Now all of you line up in two even lines so that you are all facing each other off." Everyone did that and predictably it ended up being the Ravenclaws and Slytherins against Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs as the classes tended to sit together and that was how they had arranged themselves at the beginning of the class.

"Good. Now we are going to practice a useful little spell that you were shown in your second year but may not have actually learned how to effectively do. The disarming spell, Expelliarmus." There were a few groans from students, who seemed to think that this was a pointless spell to practice. Harry was beaming, as he knew that he was gong to ace this one. He also noticed that most of the DA members were smiling as well. They knew as much as he did how useful a spell it can be, after all they had been practicing it for a long time and had used it on many occasions while sparring during the club. They also were the few students who knew that it had been effective against Voldemort, showing them just how much of a lifesaver it can be.

"You all know how the spell works, so on the count of three, I want you to disarm your opponent." Harry looked at Millicent, who was opposite him and looked ready to pounce. For some reason the Slytherin's looked pleased like they thought this would be easy. Harry intended to prove them wrong. How right he was, for even though both Pansy and Malfoy cast the spell on two, Justin who was opposite Pansy ducked away from the poorly aimed curse and Neville, who was opposite Malfoy, deflected the spell with Protego forcing Malfoy to duck. At the end Harry noticed immediately that none of the former DA members had had their wands taken and all of the non DA members who had faced off against one were missing theirs. Even Seamus, who had been only a member for one session had easily disarmed his opponent. It looked to Harry as if he had been practicing all summer. The DA members who had faced off each other had each managed to avoid the other's spell. Tonks immediately noticed the total split in ability as far as that spell was concerned. "Well… That was interesting. I think I am going to have to redo this a little bit. Return the wands please." Harry threw Millicent back her wand. All the Slytherins looked pissed except for Blaise, who simply looked at Ernie opposite him with a raised eyebrow.

"Ok now, I see some of you have had a lot of practice with this spell. Will those of you who know this spell well come over here?" Harry, along with all the DA members in the class walked over to her as did Malfoy. Harry found it hard to believe that Malfoy was that familiar with the spell considering that he had been disarmed by Neville. Who had possibly the worst aim of any of the DA members, but he didn't say anything. Tonks on the other hand noticed this immediately.

"Mr. Malfoy, Mr. Longbottom will you please face off again." Harry knew exactly what she was doing. She hated the Malfoy's just as much as Sirius did. Harry found he wasn't as shaken by the thought of Sirius as he had been in the past. That cry he had had with Wesley and Neville had apparently helped him get past it significantly. Looking back towards what was going on he could think of no better test for Malfoy than Neville. He was sure that Neville would win and that would make Malfoy even madder.

It was so perfect it was hilarious. It was the exact thing that had happened before. Apparently Malfoy hadn't gotten that cheating wasn't going to work here as not only had Neville fought off real death eaters before but they had sparred with basically no rules in the DA to see what real duels were actually like. So when Malfoy went on two again, Neville simply cast Protego again Malfoy ducked the spell and Neville then just disarmed him while he was dodging his own spell and there wasn't much he could do about it, at least without the Protego charm, which he apparently didn't know or rolling on the ground, which Harry was certain Malfoy wouldn't even think of let alone actually do. "Tsk tsk tsk, Draco you are going to have to do better than that if you want to win any duels." Tonks smiled in Neville's direction, apparently she was quite impressed. "Go stand over there with the other students." Malfoy hurried over to where the others were standing grumbling the whole time.

The rest of the period was very fun for the DA members, they were in their element. They spent their time practicing deflecting curses and disarming mid curse or mid dodge while the others practiced the most basic use of the spell. Harry and the DA had long ago realized that the spell is fairly automatic. The trick is how and when to use it as well as how to counter it. As simple a spell as it is to do, it can be one of the most deadly spells in your repertoire when dueling another wizard, especially one who is useless without a wand. Harry noticed that while Neville seemed clumsy and out of touch with his old wand, which he often made simple and not so simple mistakes with, whatever wand he was using now was working a whole lot better for him. He was flinging spells with it like it was natural for him to do so and not like he did from his previous wand which always seemed awkward to Harry even when he successfully cast with it. The wand itself looked very different than the other wands in the room, and he wondered if he was the only one who noticed that. For one thing it was made of a silvery metallic substance rather than wood. Harry had never seen a metal wand before and wondered how he had got it, especially considering that it was likely he went to Ollivander's, and as far as he could tell all of those wands were made of wood.

After a while the DA members got tired of working with the spell they had been working with since the clubs beginning and stopped to watch the other students fumble through it. Malfoy seemed to be fine at using the spell to disarm opponents, assuming they didn't deflect it with the deflection charm of course. On the other hand, he seemed rather not adept at avoiding being disarmed relying solely on removing the opposition before the opposition removed him. While this was a completely viable strategy, it wasn't a particularly great one when practicing for defending oneself against things that won't play fair. After all, it implies that you are aware that any enemies are there before they disarm you. Harry knew from experience that death eaters were very slippery creatures capable of sneaking up on even the most wary of foes. Wesley seemed to be quite the opposite of Malfoy, being able to avoid getting disarmed quite adequately but being horrible at actually connecting with the spell itself. However, he did use protego and quite a few impressive evasive maneuvers which led Harry to believe that he had been in a few duels before coming to Hogwarts, another interesting note about the mysterious boy. Other than those two there wasn't anything particularly note worthy about the students. They all seemed rather at the point everyone in the DA was when they started learning it. They were disarmed a few times and disarmed each other a few times and sometimes disarmed the wrong person.

After they got to the point where they could work on their own, or at least when Tonks thought they were at that point, she came over to the group of obviously more experienced students. "You would be last year's army of Dumbledore aren't you?"

"Well we aren't the only members, and it was Dumbledore's Army not the army of Dumbledore, but yeah that is correct." Hermione announced to the teacher, Harry would have been worried had it been anyone other than Tonks, but he knew she wouldn't care about this at all.

"Ah well then, I guess I will be expecting you guys to help the others along. After all, we can't have anyone falling to far behind." With that she went back to the other students leaving the DA members to themselves.

"Well, when should we hold our first meeting?" Justin asked the group. "I mean we are going to continue with it now that Umbridge is gone right?" He looked at Harry and Hermione expectantly.

"Of course we are." Ron responded, "You all still have your Galleons right?"

Everyone nodded yes with Neville adding. "I was so happy with last year that I didn't even have to be reminded of it by anybody! I remembered it all on my own." Everyone was impressed with this. Neville had never to Harry's knowledge remembered anything like this on his own for more than a few weeks let alone the whole summer.

"Well then, you all know how this works. I will make times."

Hermione jumped in at this point. "And don't worry, they will all be after school to not mess with your class schedules." Only Hermione, Padma and a few others were happy about this. Ron actually groaned.

"Well then, can't have a party without us!" Fred and George walked up to the group, obviously quite aware of what was being talked about.

"No we can't. Hmm…" Hermione looked at the other students. "Should we invite any more students? I mean it was supposed to be a club for anyone who wanted to learn."

"Well, I don't trust any of the Slytherins or that new Wesley kid." Ernie eyed the other group of students suspiciously as he said this.

"Well, I already invited Wesley and from what I can see, he will be a great addition if he can cast any of the spells correctly." Harry said. "As for the Slytherins, I might invite Blaise, after all he has been nicer to us lately… And actually Vincent and Gregory might be good additions as well…" Ron eyed him obviously aware of whom he was talking about. "But we should decide that later after all of us have met. I figured I should invite along Wesley, after all he is a new dorm mate of mine and could theoretically get us caught if he found out about it and wasn't there."

"So you still intend this to be a secret?" Susan's voice rang out.

"Yes, mostly so that we don't have too many students there. But also because I don't want any death eater's finding out too much about what were doing or are capable of. After everything that has happened, I want to be careful."

Everyone nodded and as the class ended everyone walked off to wherever they were supposed to go. Harry was not sure how he was going to organize this and Hermione was in class so he couldn't talk with her either. Harry ignored the other students as he planned out what he would ask her some the time as they walked back towards the common room. He heard everyone talking about Tonks, but she really didn't surprise him as much as he would have thought once he got over the initial shock of her being there.

Harry loosely noticed Snape watching them with Saren standing nearby, both having grave expressions on their faces. He slowed a bit and let others pass before realizing that he was not looking at him, but in fact looking at Wesley. Saren in his own way also seemed to be "looking" at him. They both walked off shortly after and Harry hurried back towards the others wanting to report to Ron what he had seen when he got the chance to see him alone.


	9. Wands and the Alacritis Charm

The next morning's Herbology class was nothing particularly special. The class wasn't large by any means, but it wasn't exceptionally small either, about one third of the sixth years. Professor Sprout had spent the entire class handing out the students' new kits for handling the more dangerous plants they would be using and learning about in the NEWTs class. The kits themselves contained a rather odd spade with a hook on the end of its handle, which professor Sprout said would be explained later when it would be used, dragon hide gloves for obvious reasons, a face mask and goggles as some of the later plants would have some nasty spores and other airborne defense mechanisms. There were quite a bit of other obviously more specialized tools, which she simply said would be used for specific lessons and so would be described in those individual lessons. Harry had found it hard to concentrate as she had spent nearly a half an hour describing how to put on the Goggles and another for the face mask, which is what took up most of the time. Everyone was glad the class was over, but Harry heard a number of people wondering what exactly they would be doing in the future.

Harry, Ron and Neville stepped off towards the Gryffindor Common room for their study period while Hermione went off to yet another class. How she was doing all this work was news to them, but they had never known how she pulled off all her studies while still having time to help them on theirs. Hermione, when it came right down to it, was a genius. That was the only explanation any of them could come too. Of course, that was the last thing actually on their minds. Harry was telling them about how he noticed Snape and Saren watching (Harry could not describe what Saren was doing in any other way then watching) Wesley.

"You're saying Snape was there watching him and Saren was there next to him?" Ron asked.

"Yeah."

"Weird. Why would either of them care that much about him?"

"Maybe he's a vampire?" Neville chimed in, "We did, after all, make a lot of Vampire Draught…"

"No, it couldn't be that. He helped me bottle the potion and both of us got enough of it on our hands in the process that if the potion was working the way Snape described, any vampirism would have been obvious." Harry thought and thought and the more he thought, the more the boy's actions didn't make any sense.

"Well I don't trust him." Ron said with a grimace. "He's definitely hiding something and he gets along too well with the Slytherins."

Harry didn't want to believe him, after all Wesley had helped him through a tough moment, but the more he thought about it, the more he realized how little he actually knew about him. Then he remembered something else odd. "Yesterday after we bottled the potion me and Wesley were in a rush to get to lunch. We both needed showers, and since the showers are communal anyway, I dragged him inside. He went to the furthest shower which didn't really bother me, after all we hadn't been dorm mates for that long and so hadn't seen each other much, but he was shivering, so much so that I could tell from where I was standing without even looking at him. It wasn't an uncomfortable shiver, but it wasn't embarrassment either. It was more than that. I don't exactly know what was going on, but only like a minute after I left, he came out sparkling clean and fully dressed. I don't see how… He wasn't cleaning himself, he was more so standing in the corner facing away from me and he didn't have his wand to clean himself magically nor the clothes he came out in for that matter."

Ron was about to respond to this when they ran into a very fast moving McGonagall. "Thank goodness I have finally found you." She said quickly, "I have been looking all over for you since I missed you after your Herbology class." She looked rather tired and was leaning on her cane like she had been hurrying and was out of breath.

"What's wrong professor?" Harry asked.

"Nothing, nothing. In fact everything's great now that I have found you." Harry looked at Ron who seemed just as confused as he was. "I wanted to contact you about this earlier, but I didn't have time what with all the extra work we had to do over the summer." Harry took this to mean business for the order, but that still didn't explain the sudden run in with their head of house. "I am glad you are both together. It is about the Gryffindor quidditch team."

That was the last thing Harry had been expecting. After last year, he wasn't sure if he would be able to play at all. After all as unfair as it had been, it had been in Umbridge's power to discipline him however she wanted to and while he doubted that the "life ban" was truly as such he didn't expect to be able to play at school anymore. "What quidditch team? What about last year?"

"Oh you mean Professor Umbridge? That was nonsense, utter nonsense. For one thing, she was over stepping her bounds completely. No where in the guide to setting punishment is a lifetime ban from anything even implied. And of course, once she was removed, it was completely in my power, and if not mine the Headmaster's power, to remove the ridiculous ban." She then smiled and stood up still leaning lazily on her stick. "Of course, this doesn't change the fact that ALL three of the Chaser's and the former captain left last year, so we have it build a completely new team from scratch. You being the current most senior member of the team, even including last year's setback, are the obvious choice for captain."

Harry was dumfounded, him Gryffindor team captain? Part of him was slightly happy that she had considered him for it and, unfortunately, her logic did make sense. But with the occlumency lessons, the DA, his NEWTs and dealing with Snape, he was overwhelmed enough as it was without adding more to it. And that was ignoring the whole prophecy that was being held over his head. "I'm not sure I'm up to being team captain." Harry said honestly. "I already have too much going on at the moment."

McGonagall looked slightly depressed but understanding. "I thought you might feel that way, which leads me to the other reason I came here. The choices for captain are limited as with the exception of you every member of the remaining team was new last year. Do you have any suggestions?"

Ron looked at him expectantly. However, he couldn't see Ron in a leadership position. It just wasn't him. He was a great follower and a great friend and even a not so bad quidditch player when he didn't let everything get to him, but team captain? He could see that getting really bad really fast. That's when it came to him. "Ginny." He said. Ron gaped at him. It wasn't anger as Harry had expected, it was more shock. McGonagall simply raised an eyebrow at him. "She knows her stuff, how could she not with quidditch playing brothers? And she does seem to have some competence at the game. It seems all the Weasleys have some degree of talent on the field." He said thoughtfully. "And I think she of all the people on the team would be the best leader. After all she has experienced a lot more then they have and doesn't to my knowledge have as much going on with her as the rest of us." He looked at Ron apologetically. Funnily enough, he was smiling.

"Hmm…you may be right. I'll have to ask her if she is willing. But I still want you two," she glanced at Ron as she said this, "to overlook the tryouts for the three chaser positions. I hear Ginny is going to try out for Chaser this year when you return as seeker?" McGonagall smiled as she asked this.

"That's what I hear," Ron said, "and she's a spankin good one too if you ask me. She has been practicing all summer and now not even Charlie can block her. Admittedly he isn't a Keeper, but he has a lot more experience with quidditch than I do."

"Ok, I hope that you can help rebuild the team. Katie, Alicia and Angelina, not to mention Fred and George, were almost irreplaceable."

"Did someone mention us?" Harry looked and saw Fred and George walking out of a secret passageway.

"Actually we were talking about the new quidditch team." McGonagall said smiling at them. "And I would of course love to have you two back on the team, but it is likely that the other heads of house would dispute this and now would not be a good time to start an argument between the professors of each house alongside the ongoing one between the students." Harry found this rather amusing. McGonagall had a rivalry with Snape at least as much as any Gryffindor, she obviously hid it and it was more professional then social but anyone could see it was there.

"Makes sense, not only that but we will have our hands full guarding the game for Harry here anyway. Going after Bludgers wouldn't exactly be doing our job, as fun as it would be." George again sounded quite a lot more like Hermione, he really was a lot more serious than his brother. Fred just stood there continuing to grin.

"Of course I would love it if you two would help coach the team, especially Sloper and Kirke, who as you could see from last year, aren't exactly the best beaters." Harry could tell from how she dropped her head that even that statement was glossing over the truth. Compared to Fred and George, Kirke and Sloper might as well not even be on the field. They could barely aim bludgers towards standing targets let alone someone flying on a broomstick.

"Now I need to go to a staff meeting. The tryouts are on Saturday at ten o'clock. I posted them so you shouldn't forget. Remember that you should try to get there early to make sure everything goes smoothly. Oh, and don't let the Slytherins take the pitch form you for anything other than a note from Dumbledore himself. I booked the pitch for our tryouts with Hooch personally, so that not even Snape can take it away. Well have a good day!" With that their head of house went off, quite quickly Harry thought considering she was effectively hobbling using her cane. With that Fred and George disappeared again. Harry wasn't sure what was going on but they seemed to be there when they should and this gave him at least the illusion of privacy.

"Wow! You're gonna get to play quidditch again Harry!" Neville beamed at him excitedly. "Maybe this year we'll actually taker the house cup!"

"Yeah, oh and thanks for suggesting Ginny instead of me for captain." Ron surprised him by saying this. "I wanted the job at first, but then realized that with my ambitions and of course the other stuff we're doing and the DA, I don't think I could remain sane and still run the quidditch team. Besides, I would probably just mess up more as a keeper if I had to concentrate on the entire team, so I better stick to that." He then smiled widely before adding, "I'm not the King of Gryffindor for nothing!" At that the three of them laughed. Apparently, the last year had bolstered Ron's self esteem significantly and had also made him a bit more mature then Harry remembered. The boy was certainly becoming the man.

They walked the rest of the way to their common room chatting about quidditch. They then continued to chat about quidditch with Seamus and Dean, with Dean again comparing the sport to muggle soccer. Which Harry understood, but Ron still insisted was much too simple to be all that interesting. Time passed and eventually they all went off to lunch.

Lunch was rather uneventful and the Gryffindors were eagerly looking forward to their next class, NEWT charms with Flitwick. They had heard from the older students that he did a different charm on the first day every year, so that everyone would be surprised. Harry had always liked the small professor, as he had always made his classes more fun then a lot of the other teachers. Not to mention the spells he learned in his charms classes had always been the most useful to him in any given situation. This was the REAL defense against the dark arts class in his experience.

The NEWT charms class took place in the sixth year NEWTs auditorium like their defense against the dark arts class. The auditorium looked essentially the same except that where desks previously were, there was a big empty space in the middle and on either side was a set of seats at tables against the wall. Each table was a level above the one in front of it, much like bleachers might look like if one were to attach tables them. The tables were all facing the center of the room rather than the stage which looked exactly the same. Professor Flitwick was sitting on a broomstick in the center of the room above the same box of pillows that they had used to practice summoning and banishing charms during their third year. The number of students already in the room was astounding and more continued to come in. It appeared that every single sixth year student was in the class with him, meaning there were at least forty students total in the class, an unprecedented number considering previous classes of at most half that amount with the exception of the defense against the dark arts class, which was almost as large, but that made sense to Harry given the trying times.

Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville and Wesley all went to the front of the section where all the Gryffindors were sitting (as expected, the four houses each took a specific corner and grouped together there) Dean and Seamus were sitting behind them. Fred and George were still no where to be seen, but Harry was sure they were nearby.

Professor Flitwick wasted no time starting class once everyone was here. "Hello students!" He said in his characteristically happy bouncy manner as he floated above the floor in the room. "Today we will be working on a particularly specialized charm. It is very easy to cast, however it is much harder to control, which is why it is taught at the NEWT level and not before. I have no doubt that all of you will be able to use the charm on your first try!" He then lowered the broom picked up a pillow and tossed it to Padma saying. "The charm is called the charm of alacrity and it is used to incredibly increase or decrease the velocity of existing movement. Allow me to demonstrate, Ms. Patil please banish the pillow towards the wall." Padma did as she was told and as soon as it started professor Flitwick said " _alacritis_ " and the pillow was instantly in a second empty box by the edge of the stage. Harry had barely seen the blur as the Pillow increased to a phenomenal speed. It then stopped dead above the box and fall into it harmlessly. The entire class was silent after that, intently watching and listening to the professor, obviously eager to try out the charm themselves.

"Now, all of you will need plenty of room to practice this, and I have taken the liberty of casting an imperturbable charm over the entire room. Each of you choose a partner. Once you've done that, summon a pillow for your group and get started. As Ms. Patil and I demonstrated, take turns practicing the charm by having one of you banish the pillow towards the wall and the other then use the charm on it. It's really that simple, you might want to cover your ears until everyone gets it down though. Now each of you pair up!" Professor Flitwick flew high above the room after saying that. Students started mingling and forming pairs.

Harry paired himself up with Ron, after all he hadn't worked with him yet this term and he figured he would have some time to chat with him in semi private this way. Neville and Hermione paired up at Neville's insistence and as usual Dean paired up with Seamus. Wesley, apparently seeing that all of his dorm mates were already paired up walked over to the Slytherins and paired himself up with Blaise. There was some murmuring from the Gryffindors, but after potions, this did not surprise Harry at all. Neither Hermione nor Neville seemed to take much note either. Ron of course, was livid.

"What is he doing sitting with him?" He asked Harry under his breath.

"They were assigned partners in Potions." Harry responded lazily, not wanting to hear one of Ron's rants about house alliances.

"Still, we're not in potions why would…" But Ron was cut off by professor Flitwick and so Harry was spared from Ron's predictable rant.

"Ok class, now that you all have a pillow and a partner, line up and start to practice as instructed. Again you might want to cover your ears for the beginning part of it anyway." Harry noticed as he said this that Flitwick had Earmuffs on. _Great,_ he thought, _I suppose I should cover my ears then._

Everyone got started. Ron was first to go so Harry banished the pillow to the box as they had been doing since fourth year. Ron immediately said, " _alacritis_ " and the result was rather spectacular. The pillow disappeared with a loud BANG as it fell off of some invisible barrier into the box. The pillow had accelerated to the point of being invisible and looked more like it had apparated to the wall then had crashed into it. A lot more large BANGs could be heard as every other student did roughly the same thing. Padma and Hermione and a few other Ravenclaws managed to not make the sound of the pillow crashing into the wall as loud but not a single person stopped the pillow above the box like Flitwick.

"This is harder than I thought." He roughly heard Hermione say before another line of BANGs were heard throughout the room. He had no better luck then Ron and managed to continue to break everyone's eardrums. Seamus and Dean were covering their ears as were a large number of other students, from what he had seen neither of them had done any better than he and Ron had. Neville had surprised him by doing almost as well as Hermione. Whatever that wand was, it was working a whole lot better for him than his old one did. Lavender and Parvati had not done any better. No one had fared as badly as Wesley however. Everyone else in the room had managed at least to successfully cast the charm, Wesley had not. Harry watched as he spun his wand oddly looking at it tried a different incantation and then eventually just slammed his wand into the pillow. It had disastrous results, as the pillow shot towards the wall with the most resounding BANG yet and then exploded into a cloud of feathers. Wesley looked around blushing well Blaise just looked amused. Blaise had managed to cast the spell as well as everyone else.

"Well now Mr. Tinderspoon! That was an interesting…" Professor Flitwick cut himself off with a smile. "That wouldn't be a metallic wand now would it?" He asked with a smile.

"Um… if you mean a wand with a strip of metal in it, then yes…" Wesley said quite uncomfortably.

"Ah! So?" Flitwick continued his questioning apparently completely forgetting that he had a class to teach.

"Uh… what?" Wesley looked confused.

"What kind of metal is it? Gold? Silver? Platinum?" Flitwick was getting more and more excited as he continued to barrage Wesley with questions.

"Actually it's mithril…"

"Mithril! Marvelous! Marvelous! May I see your wand for a second?" Obviously at a loss for words, Wesley timidly nodded and handed Flitwick his wand. "Now, I imagine the rest of you are wondering why I am so excited about this wand." Harry was. He didn't see how it was relevant that Wesley's wand had a strip of metal in it. A wand was a wand right? "You may note that all of your wands are made with something from a magical creature: a hair, tail, horn. The reason why is it is now standard procedure in Britain to only make and distribute wands made using magical creatures rather than magical metals because wands made with Metals are a lot harder to control and tend to have… as you saw… much more explosive results. I have been meaning to get a metallic wand, as they are incredibly useful to the skilled wizard, especially when doing things that require simply a lot of power. They can be controlled however. Padma if you please?" He them motioned to her pillow again. Padma banished the pillow and Flitwick with a strange little spin of Wesley's wand succeeded in using the alacritis charm without the slightest bit of noise. He then passed the wand back to a still blushing Wesley, who now seemed to be looking at their professor in awe, before saying, "Now on you go, and if you ever need any help with any of your spells using that, please feel free to ask!" He said that a little too excitedly as if he wanted Wesley to have trouble so that he could mess with his wand more. Harry was just happy to get back to the class, the wand meant very little to him.

The rest of the class went very well except of course from everyone's hearing's point of view. By the end of it Padma, Hermione, Malfoy (much to Ron's dismay), and to everybody's surprise, Neville had managed the perfect stop. Everyone else, except Wesley anyway, had at least managed to slow it enough to stop the large BANG from resounding the room. Harry was happy to get out of there, but wasn't to pleased that he didn't get a chance to talk to Ron. He would have to rectify that at dinner. But that would of course have to wait until his ears stopped ringing. At the moment, Neville's wand intrigued him. He would have to ask him about it later.

After class, the sixth year Gryffindors all went to the common room (except Hermione of course who had yet another class to attend) and spent the entire time goofing off while trying to study. It was such that Harry didn't get anytime to talk to Ron at all, something he was not happy about in the slightest.

As everyone else walked off towards dinner, Harry pulled Ron up to their dorm mostly to buy time for a personal conversation away from the group. However, when he got there his attention was taken; as on his bed, with a note attached to it, was a firebolt, presumably the one that had been taken from him the previous year. Ron saw it too and smiled. Harry wasted no time running over and picking it up and reading the note.

_I am afraid it took a bit longer to get this then was expected, do to Umbridge's attempt at final revenge. Unfortunately, because of that, this is not the same firebolt you have had in previous years. I do not know what happened to that one, except that the pieces of it were owled to Dumbledore anonymously with a final note about you._

_Being that I was expecting you to return, I immediately started pulling for getting you a new broom and I was happy to find that your class mates were willing to pitch in to get this replacement for you. After all, who could resist the chance to win the house cup again? I am sorry if this revelation about your previous broom is troubling, as I know how much it meant to you, but alas nothing can be done about that._

_I implore that you thank Mr. Longbottom, Mr. Finnigan, Mr. Thomas, Mr. Tinderspoon, Mr. Weasley, Ms. Patil, Ms. Brown and Ms. Granger for this incredible gift. You should give extra special thanks to Ms. Granger, as asking the other sixth year Gryffindors to help pitch in for the broom was her idea. I hope you choose to accept this gift from your friends and for the sake of your house. Use this as you have used your previous two brooms and I know you will not be disappointed._

_-M. McGonagall_

Harry looked at his friend who was smiling at him. "I know it can't replace the last one, but it was the least we could do after the horrible year you had." Ron said sheepishly and a bit reserved like he didn't know what Harry's reaction was going to be.

Harry surprised himself by not getting angry. He felt well rather happy actually. His friends had really gone out on a limb for him this time and it really showed just how close they had become over the last six years. "Thanks." Was all he said and from Ron's smile and nod that was all he had to say.

"So you're gonna get to play quidditch again? That awesome!" Ron started without hesitation once the serene silence had ended.

"Yeah, I know. I'm kinda surprised actually. After being such a bastard last year, I wasn't expecting to be able to play." Harry felt a little down as they started off towards dinner. He had been a real arse the previous year.

"Right, like McGonagall would give up the best player on the team since Charlie AND the chance to watch Snape's team get beaten by a team containing the hated Harry Potter!" Ron said sarcastically. Harry smiled again as Ron continued. "She'd kill Umbridge before she did that, and I'd be one of the first to help her!"

"Here, here!" Harry said while raising his hand as if he had a beer mug, then they fell into a bit of laughter. "So Ron, how was your summer really? I never got a good picture of it."

"Actually, other than quidditch, it was rather hustled. We were moving around a lot because most of my family members were doing things for the order. Me, Ginny, Fred and George had the house to ourselves a lot more this summer as even mom really began to pitch in." Ron sighed obviously remembering what sounded to Harry like an incredibly hectic summer.

"Can you believe that there was a day when mom didn't come home and make dinner?" Ron asked suddenly.

"Wow…" It must have been hectic if Molly Weasley didn't make it home to make dinner for her family. Harry had never seen nor heard of such a thing in all the time he'd known them.

"But we lived with it. Dad wasn't home either, so we whipped something up. And then, when our endeavors ended up destroying half the kitchen rather then making us actual food, Ginny simply made some eggs for everyone while me, Fred and George cleaned everything up." Ron then sighed but this time he was smiling, reminiscing over the day. "Of course, we managed to miss something, so mom found out about it and we got a large lecture about how we could have been hurt or burned the house down or something. You know how mom is, always the one wanting to protect everyone, even from themselves." Harry laughed. He knew exactly what Ron meant. If Molly Weasley got it into her head that you needed to be protected, then she was going to protect you, whether you liked it or not. "How about your summer Harry?" Ron asked.

"Well, my summer was actually horrible. I was stuck in my room for the first month doing nothing but laying there. All the Dursleys did was give me food and water. They ignored me the rest of the time, which I found to actually be more excruciating then having them yell at me. At least when they were yelling at me I wasn't sitting there doing nothing." Harry stopped and thought about his summer more. Trying to remember anything interesting that had happened besides the obvious, he couldn't think of anything so he continued to the odd second half of it.

"Well…that is until Snape showed up on my doorstep with Malfoy, Vincent and Gregory in tow. It was the furthest thing from what I was expecting, Malfoy in my house? And he was there for three whole days before me and Hermione got together to figure out what to do. In the end they ended up staying at Ms. Figg's house while I stayed at my house, although I will admit that I spent more time there then at home. Simply put, my uncle and aunt didn't care where I was as long as I didn't bother them and it was better hanging out with even Malfoy then with my cousin. Hermione was there most of the time, so it was usually the five of us." Harry remembered most of that month quite vividly. It had been his needed distraction. As horrible as it may have been, a lot of good did come of it. He wasn't sure he would have given many of the people he met this year nearly as much credit had he not realized all that stuff about Malfoy and his former cronies.

"Wow, I almost wish I was there." Ron almost looked sad for a second before he smiled. "But then I realize that I would have had to spend an entire month with Malfoy and I say. Not worth it." Ron smiled, obviously he was a lot less agitated then he used to be. Harry finally saw a great resemblance to Fred and George. Actually, when he really thought about, it with the exception of Percy and Molly, all the Weasleys had a pretty happy bent to them once you got past the fronts they put up. Fred and George just never really put up a front. What you saw was what you got with then, for good or for ill.

The two of them talked for the remainder of the walk to the great hall where they walked up to where Hermione and Wesley were sitting in their usual positions and sat down. As soon as they sat down, Harry slowly got all his class mates attentions by individually tapping them on the shoulders or saying their names. After he had everyone's attention he said. "Thank you for the new broom stick. I hardly think I deserve it after how I acted last year, but thanks anyway."

Everyone laughed at this and Harry felt some anger start to rise at that until Dean spoke in a rather serious tone, changing the mood of the group instantly. "Don't bother, we all know that you have had tough times here, after all you have seen and done things that would affect anyone. I am just glad that you came out of it okay. And besides, when split among eight people, even the price of a firebolt isn't that much." Dean smiled again returning the mood to a light hearted state.

"Besides, after how Umbridge treated you last year, and the fact that you needed a broom anyway if you were going to help us take the cup from the Slytherins this year. made it totally worth the expense." Hermione's smiled as she said this.

Harry looked over at Wesley, "I'm curious. What did you have anything to do with this?" He said.

"Actually, I didn't really. I just heard about it after the fact a few days ago and decided to pitch in. I just figured it couldn't hurt, and if nothing else, it made me feel more like part of the group." He smiled as he said this and it dawned on Harry that that was important not just for Wesley but for all of them. This just proved it. There was something beyond simply being classmates about the Gryffindor sixth years. As different as they were, they were all united under one commonality, they were all friends on some level.

Harry smiled for a bit before simply changing the subject rather abruptly to something that had been on his mind. He didn't really want this to be drawn out any longer than it needed to be. He had made his thanks and now it was done. "Hey Neville, I was wanting to ask you this before I got distracted by the new firebolt."

Neville looked at him slightly nervously, "Yes?"

"What's with your new wand? You seem rather better with it then your last one." Harry realized how that sounded after it had already came out, but Neville cut him off as he was starting to apologize.

"Actually, it's not that interesting a story. But I guess it is relevant in an odd sort of way. I was in Ollivander's getting my new wand and I had been in there for over an hour trying out wand after wand after wand some of which exploded in my face and others of which had no effect at all." He was getting ever more nervous as he continued his story. "Eventually, when I thought I would have to go somewhere else to get a wand or maybe just accept that fact that I was never going to be a good wizard and might as well live as a Squib, he got this look in his eye that scared me. It's so weird, normally I don't remember much at all beyond specifics, but what he said next I can remember almost word for word… 'Hmm…an interesting possibility. One I might not have considered…' After saying that he went into the back room and brought out this wand. I had never seen a wand like it before but it was getting late and I really wanted to just be done with this as I really wasn't expecting to find a wand I was really good with, even if one did work for me, so I just took it from his hand and right there knew it was going to be different. I could feel it in my hands, it felt powerful. I waved it and a small wave of glowing dust fell from the tip before disappearing."

Neville then looked straight at Harry before continuing. He looked nervous but also determined. "He then said to me, 'Curious that this wand would ever find a master as I made it on a whim. It is the most unique wand I have ever made. There is not a single wand in anyone's hands that has been in this store even remotely like it.' I was confused. It was obviously different, but I wasn't really getting what he was saying." Neville took a deep breath and then looked directly at Harry again before continuing. "He then pulled me into a back room before saying 'This wand is special wand I made 6 years ago on a hunch supplied by a boy. It is curious that this wand would ever find an owner, as it is made not from a standard core, but from a single fallen hair from the head of the boy who lived…'" Everyone around them began to stare at Harry and Neville. However, Harry didn't even notice because he was thinking of something totally different: _The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches… Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies… and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives… The one with the power to vanquish the dark lord will be born as the seventh month dies…_ He also remembered what Dumbledore had told him, who that prophecy could have been about: Harry Potter or Neville Longbottom.


	10. Three Truths Revealed

Harry hadn't said anything, not for the rest of dinner, not until he was completely alone with his dorm mates. Ron, Hermione, Neville, Seamus, Dean, Fred, George and Wesley just let him be. Harry had made a decision. He would tell Hermione, Neville and Ron the prophecy. He now wanted Hermione and Ron to know so that they could help him in any way they could because he knew he would need such help. Now was not time for pride, last years events had proven that. He felt anger rise but, unlike before, he let it. He knew what it was and he needed to be able to control it instead of letting it control him as he had the previous year. At least this time, he was successful, and the anger turned into resolve to never let anything like what happened last year happen again, at least if he could help it.

Harry informed Hermione that he wanted to meet her in the common room before she went up to her room. She had nodded at him and then went up to her room without batting an eye. They were used to sneaking around late at night. They had been doing it since their first year.

After everyone in his dorm had fallen asleep, he woke up Ron and Neville. Ron was hard to wake, but after a bit of prodding he woke up with out much of a squeak. Neville on the other hand woke up with a yelp and Harry had to cover his mouth with his hand in order to stop him from screaming. "Neville it's me, I need to talk to you." He said urgently. Neville's obvious fear began to subside and he nodded. Harry removed his hand and then the three of them walked down to the common room where they found Hermione waiting by the fire. The room was devoid of people other than that.

"Ok, why the late night meeting?" Ron asked irritably.

"Yeah, and why am I here?" Neville asked. Hermione just waited patiently for him to talk.

"Well, I need to tell you something, something important." Harry started. "Last year was not exactly the most pleasant experience for any of us. However, you may have noticed that I was even more irritable after we got back from the Department of Mysteries then I was before."

"We all noticed, but we figured that was do to snuffles…" Hermione trailed off after using Sirius' nickname, likely out of habit. Harry flinched at it, but rather than making him angry as he expected, it simply increased his resolve to do what had to be done.

"Well, that was only part of it. A big part, but only part. After that whole debacle, me and Dumbledore had another chat and he told me a few things that made me incredibly angry…" Harry thought back on that day for a minute. He remembered it, and felt much anger about it, but he realized that he had never really thought about it. When he thought about it, his anger had been meaningful but hardly justified. It wasn't just do to that either, it was everything that had happened that year. Dumbledore was the center of all his rage, mainly because he never saw the guy so he was a convenient target. The anger was really at himself, and at the universe for making his life hell.

After the pause to think, he noticed his friends were waiting expectantly. Ron and Neville looked slightly nervous, as if they expected him to explode at them. Hermione, whom he had had more contact with over the summer and thus had seen he was getting over the previous year, was looking more grave. She knew the news was big if it had come from Dumbledore and made him angry.

Harry continued after a few more moments. "He told me something that I should have told you immediately but I wasn't exactly in the best of minds last year." He started pacing nervously, now that he was getting ready to tell them about the prophecy, he didn't know where to start. He figured he could start with an explanation for why he had to stay with his aunt and uncle, the complete unadulterated answer. Ron and Neville's nervousness had subsided to intent curiosity and Hermione still waited patiently but expectant as well.

"He told me that the reason I had to stay with my aunt and uncle was because when my mother died to protect me she created a power in my blood, my bonds of family, that would protect me from Voldemort, but only as long as I lived with my aunt and uncle. According to Dumbledore, in order for the spell to work they had to accept me as their family and I have to stay with them for at least four weeks out of the year." Hermione got one of her 'duh I should have figured it out' looks and Ron had a look of understanding as well. Neville just waited.

"There's more, he also told me that the reason he hadn't told me all of this before was because he had grown to love me like a son and didn't want to break my innocence." The three of them looked at him oddly.

Harry was about to finish his story when Fred, George and Wesley stepped off the stairs. Harry knew he had to finish his story before he lost his resolve. He knew he could trust Fred and George, now Wesley, on the other hand, he was wary about, but he doubted he was a Death Eater and for him it was now or never, so he decided to take the risk. Fred obviously wanted to say something but Harry waived them over and motioned for them to listen.

"There was one more thing, the most important one, and the reason why I woke you up Neville along with Ron and Hermione." Neville looked at him nervously, but Harry saw resolve beneath that nervousness. The same resolve he had seen in the DA and at the department of mysteries. "Dumbledore told me the prophecy. It was about a boy who was born at the end of July who would kill the dark lord." Their reactions were immediate. Neville's eyes grew big, obviously noticing the significance of that statement. Ron, Fred and George gaped at Harry while Wesley just sat there watching curiously with a questioning expression on his face. Hermione grew stern, silently prompting him to finish. So he did, he told them the prophecy, word for word. "…and that's it."

He found that, instead of being nerve wracking as he had expected, it had been a load off his body and mind to tell someone else that. He realized then that he had needed to inform them of this in order to tell someone, beyond simply wanting them to know. No, he corrected himself, he needed them to know. He needed them to know what he had been going through. He, Ron, and Hermione had been through too much to keep such important secrets form each other. He looked around at the others. Fred and George looked totally awake and quite stern, an expression that Harry knew they had but still thought looked wrong on them. He was not used to the Weasley twins not having smiles on their faces. Wesley looked puzzled and gazed at Harry with a look that asked him what this was all about. He found that the gaze did not make him wary as he had initially thought, instead it was piercing in a positive way. It broke any walls that would have been between them and made him want to tell the boy what he was silently asking. He knew he would eventually. There was no doubt in his mind that this was a friend to keep close. That all of them were.

There was silence for a while after that. They were all obviously thinking about what had been said there. Ron was staring at Harry in silence. It was a compassionate look that made Harry remember what had made him like the boy to begin with; he had been the first person in the wizarding world to truly see Harry and not just "the boy who lived." Hermione had a similar look, but there was a bit more thought behind it. There was consideration and implication in her look, but it comforted him that she was thinking about it. He trusted her intellect exquisitely. It had always been an asset, from her solving Snape's protection of the Philosopher's Stone, to helping him talk to Sirius using Umbridge's office the previous year. Oh things had not always gone according to her plans, but they had always gotten through them in one piece. Plus, above all else, she was the reason of the trio. Without her, Harry realized, he probably would have died long ago.

He looked at Neville now, the one who could very well have ended up in his position of having to slay Voldemort, and could still end up in that position. Harry did not want to consider the idea that Dumbledore could be wrong, but he could remember plenty of times in the past where he had been. Dumbledore was a great wizard, but Harry was no longer sure of the man behind the magic. It was like Ollivander had said to him about Voldemort his first year, "He did great things… terrible, but great." Dumbledore was not the totally honest and good natured man he had always thought him to be. He had a dark side that Harry himself had witnessed. It had been Dumbledore, not Voldemort, who had said that there were fates worse then death and that he intended for Voldemort to experience them. His thoughts returned to Neville. How would they have been different had it been him who was chosen? It was pointless to dwell on it because it hadn't happened that way. Neville was a good friend though. Ever since their first year he had been the only one who had noticed their shenanigans and had been the only one to stand up against them when they had started to leave the dorm that day they went to retrieve the Philosopher's Stone. In some odd fashion, that event and leaving Neville petrified on the floor had formed a lasting bond between the four of them that had continued to exist to this day. Admittedly, Neville getting the last ten points required too win the house cup that year had raised everybody's connection to him. But for them it was more. As much as it was odd to admit it, Neville had been a part of pretty much every significant outing that he, Ron and Hermione had went on that year. And later he became a good friend.

Fred and George's faces still had the uncharacteristic ferocity in them. That more than anything pointed out the gravity of the situation. Harry or Neville had been destined to destroy the dark lord. However, even though seeing that pointed out the seriousness of the situation, it also made him happy he had the twins on his side. He knew they were incredibly powerful wizards when they applied themselves, and often even when they didn't. He also knew that, even with their trickster tendencies, they would be willing to take any spell for a friend if it came down to that. Harry realized that he was no longer just their little brother's best friend or surrogate younger brother, he was their friend. He didn't know why he didn't see this before, since they had freely given him the marauders map as well as used their inventions to make sure he could talk to Sirius and simply to cheer him up when he needed it.

Then there was Wesley, who really just happened to come around at the right time. Still, Harry did have a bond with the boy, one that was reaffirmed with each interaction, and he found himself glad that he'd told them. He'd have to tell Dean and Seamus at some point as well, though that was best done another night.

However comforting it was to have all of these people now aware of his plight so he didn't have to shoulder it alone, Harry was still not really uplifted as much as stabilized where he was. He knew that this wasn't something he wanted or something he thought would give him an edge. These people and others like them would be necessary for him to have any chance against Voldemort and his Death Eaters. They were a requirement, not an advantage.

The six of them sat there silently for a bit longer before Hermione realized what time it was and rushed off to bed, but not before shooing the boys in the same direction. Harry was comforted rather than annoyed by this. It was normal, and for that he was grateful.

Tired but happy he had gotten all of that off of his chest, Harry slowly walked up the stairs thinking about the new stronger friendships. His eyes widened at what he found in the dorm room when he opened the door: Seamus Finnigan was gently kissing the cheek of a soundly sleeping Dean Thomas with an obvious longing expression on his face. Almost immediately Ron was heard gasping loudly behind him.

A terrified Seamus was instantly pushed off a very shocked and then angry looking Dean. The two friends looked totally different to him then he had seen them in the past. Seamus was staring around at the rest of the group still with a expression of shocked terror. Dean's normally cool demeanor had been shattered, showing a rage that none present had seen before. It scared Harry to the core as it was the exact change that he had witnessed in himself over his previous year. For the first time, he saw what others had seen of him and it scared him more then he would have liked to admit. Seamus was also different. The strong stubborn young man had become a scared child under his friends gaze. He didn't know how the others were reacting, but from the stillness of the room, he assumed that they were all just as shocked as he was.

Dean spoke first, "What was that about!" He yelled in Seamus' face. Seamus entire body pulled in on itself at the accusation. His body language told him everything he needed to know. "You FANCY me! All this time I thought you were my best friend and you FANCIED me!" Both accusations caused Seamus to cringe and pull in on himself more. It was obvious to Harry what all of this meant. Seamus' expression was not the fear of the accused. It was the fear of being caught red handed. His body language all but proved Dean's assessment correct.

"I can't believe this!" Dean spat at him again while the five boys watched in silence. "And when you took Lavender to the Yule ball what was that? Or all those times we checked out girls together? Were you were just lying to me then?" Seamus continued to cringe with each accusation. Harry wasn't sure what to do. It was obvious to him what was going on, but he had no experience whatsoever to deal with such a situation, so he just stared.

Dean then stormed out of the room towards the common room without looking back. Harry noticed a whole bunch of students both older and younger standing in the hallway who had witnessed at least part of that fight. Some looked scared, others disgusted, though whether it was with the fight or the fact that they'd been woken up in the middle of the morning, Harry couldn't tell.

Seamus turned to look at his housemate's with the same look of terror. Wesley, Fred and George tried to get the people in the hallway to go back to bed to no effect. It wasn't until Hermione, Lavender and Parvati showed up and Hermione threatened to hand out detentions that people started heading back to their rooms mumbling and grumbling to themselves.

Silence fell over the sixth year Gryffindors again as they all tried to sort out what had just happened. Seamus had noticeably calmed at the appearance of the girls and Ron had seemed to remember himself at their arrival as well. He still looked incredibly uncomfortable however, and kept making sideways glances at Seamus.

Hermione, Lavender, and Parvati had unreadable looks on their faces, but seemed to be standing guard more so than anything else. Like they thought that the boys needed to solve this problem themselves but needed some controlling factors to not get out of hand.

"I…" Seamus started. He then began tearing silently.

"What were you thinking!" Ron said in yet another angry outburst, "KISSING Dean? What on earth would make you want to kiss him?" Seamus' response spoke wonders to Harry as to why. He didn't really understand the feelings, but for the first time he saw the feelings for what they were. And that was it, they simply were. Seamus HADN'T been thinking or he would have never done it. Harry remembered his experience with Cho the previous year under the mistletoe. He probably wouldn't have kissed her if it weren't for it, but he also hadn't had five years of built up feelings either. The point was that he wasn't thinking there. In fact, thought as he would generally experience it, was almost actively being pushed out of his mind at that time.

"I…" Seamus said again, and his expression of defeat said more then any words he could have replaced it with. Ron didn't seem to get it, not that Harry expected him to. Ron could be very dense sometimes and didn't really know what it was like to be different from everyone else, an outcast as it were. Harry understood it well. Even after going to Hogwarts, he always felt a little different because of his past.

Harry also had never bought into the whole queer issue. He never had any friends to support it as being bad and his uncle and aunt were not to be trusted to say what is normal, since to them, normal was so narrow that almost no one fit their definition, including Harry himself. Anything they thought abnormal deserved more thought before a conclusion could be made. He still saw Seamus as Seamus and frankly, with everything that was going on with him lately, he didn't have time or energy to think of him as anything else.

"I'll just go and talk to Ms. McGonagall about this, maybe I can find a new room or something." Seamus looked forlorn and a bit mad as well. But it was inwardly directed anger. Suddenly Seamus' reluctance to do the occlumency lessons made a lot more sense. He did have a secret that he didn't want to share.

"Don't bother." George said, "People will just have to deal."

Seamus was still reluctant, but he stopped and went and sat on his bed. Ron looked a bit frazzled and still a lot uncomfortable. Dean had yet to return. Neville looked a bit uncomfortable as did Fred. Harry didn't really care and it looked like George didn't either. Wesley's expression was mostly unreadable.

Hermione spoke up then, "I see everything is okay here, but I wouldn't stop worrying though. After all, most of Gryffindor knows now and I assume that with how much the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs talk, it will be all over school by tomorrow."

Harry had then just realized that Hermione hadn't been surprised at all, like she had already known. Seamus' expression showed he seemed to notice that too. Ron didn't, but he was still the one who responded, "Huh? How can you be so calm?" Harry thought that was a silly question considering it was Hermione.

"Well, we have known for ages. I figured it out watching Seamus look at Dean in his first few years." Hermione as usual acted as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Yeah, and I figured it out after the Yule ball. He just didn't really seem that interested in me there." She looked at Seamus, "You kept looking at Dean and a few others longingly while you thought I wasn't paying attention. I had my suspicions then so I asked Hermione, as she always seemed to know these things, and she confirmed it for me." Lavender seemed nonplussed as she said this. It really had been apparent to the girls for a long time.

"I was told by Padma, who had learned it while studying with Hermione and the topic randomly came up." Parvati said. "I then confirmed it with Hermione and Lavender last year."

Seamus looked stunned. "I was that obvious?"

"Well I wouldn't say that. The whole school obviously didn't know because you'd be having a hard time of that, but I bet a few of the Ravenclaws and smarter Slytherins know." Hermione looked at the rest of the room then at a now much more nervous Seamus, "Are you okay?" Her face turned from fact mode to compassion in a split second. Seamus shivered but just nodded.

"He'll be fine." Wesley spoke up then walked over, sat on Seamus' bed and threw his arm over his shoulder in a friendly gesture that was almost comical as Seamus was notably taller than him. "I won't let anyone do anything stupid to you." Harry concurred, and so he just nodded in Seamus' direction. Seamus nodded back, obviously a lot less worried now. He had what he needed, his friends. Harry realized that tonight could be a night of breaking friendships or a night of building them. For him, this was more then a simple teenage squabble. It was forming bonds which could and would save his life at some point. He knew it, he didn't really know how, but he did.

Ron still looked incredibly uncomfortable and kept glancing in Seamus' direction nervously. Fred and George were whispering to each other with Fred looking at Seamus much like Ron, it was obvious form their expressions that George was in some way pacifying his brother. Neville looked nervous but kept silent the entire time silently watching everything that was going on. Hermione, Parvati and Lavender left to go back to their dorm rooms after being sure that nothing was going to happen. Seamus was worried about Dean but Harry was certain Dean would come around. After all they had been best friends for the previous five years. Real friendships don't break up over simple squabbles. After the drama of the evening everyone was happy to fall asleep. Harry was happy to not have any dreams that night. The last thing he needed then was a prophetic dream that he couldn't make heads or tails of.

The next morning was almost the same as every other morning with the new dorm set up a chaotic rush to get everyone together and ready for breakfast on time. The only thing different that made it worse by the fact that only Harry, George and after some coercion from his brother, Fred were willing to shower with Seamus. Dean had gotten in sometime after they had all gone to sleep and he completely ignored Seamus. In fact he completely ignored the rest of the dorm and was the first person out the door to breakfast. Harry and Wesley as usual were thrown around a lot do to their size but they all managed to get themselves together on time as they had the previous days. All six of the remaining boys started walking towards the great hall for breakfast together, although Ron and Fred did so reluctantly. Neville was still nervous but his stride didn't falter.

As soon as they were out of their dorm changes in the demeanor of the students were obvious. The few students in the common room that were either skipping or waiting for others to go to breakfast in the common room looked at the sixth year boys with disdain and often immediately started whispering and laughing to themselves as they were leaving. Harry noticed that Seamus would freeze up whenever they got near anyone and then remain that way until they were well out of earshot. The Gryffindor students that they met in the hallway reacted pretty much the same way as well as a few of the Hufflepuffs that were talking with them.

The intensity of the situation was not fully discovered by them until they entered the great hall. As soon as they entered the chatting at the Gryffindor table immediately stopped for a second and then continued in whispers with people glancing at the group every so often. There were a few murmurs at the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw tables as well. Oddly the Slytherins didn't really seem to care.

The group took their main spot next to Hermione, but Dean had sat all the way on the end of the table near some rather secretive seventh years that were still whispering and glancing over every so often. Harry was not sure if it was a good thing or not but where Dean normally sat next to Seamus was a very excited looking Dennis Creevy (not that there was ever a time when the Creevy brothers DIDN'T look exited).

"Hello!" He said merrily. It was odd not seeing Colin with him but he was sitting on the a few feet away whispering with another group. This in of itself was odd; Harry had never seen Colin talk any softer than a yell. Dennis on the other hand seemed quite normal. Actually he seemed different then he was when he was with Colin. He seemed to follow his brother around and act like him whenever they were together. But now he noticed a mischievous glint that Colin didn't seem to have. A memory of him saying something about falling into the Lake being Brilliant came to him. The fact that he was a third year addressing sixth years like they were best friends was not lost on him either.

"Hi." Harry responded to the energetic boy.

Dennis looked over at Colin and then lowered his voice. "I heard about what happened last night." He looked up at Seamus. "I just want you to know that you have the third year boy's support. I made sure of that." He then looked at Harry. "Besides hanging out with Colin was getting to be such a bore. His hero worship of you was cute for a while but now it makes him look rather pitiful. My brother has always been easily excitable though and has a tendency to break down if anyone who he really trusts says anything contrary to what he thinks so I play along when I'm with him." Harry was very relieved to hear this. He had thought that Colin had managed to convince his brother of Harry's perfection. When really it had just been Dennis playing along for his brothers benefit. Why he had chosen now he didn't really know but he suspected that it was because Colin wasn't taking the news about Seamus as well as Dennis had.

"Well, I've got to get back to my friends. Oh and Harry see ya tomorrow at the Quidditch tryouts!" Before Harry could respond Dennis had jumped out of his chair and quite hyperactively rushed over to a group of third years where he immediately started chatting quite loudly.

Harry was about to walk over and ask Dennis what he was trying out for but Hermione grabbed his arm and pulled him out alongside the other sixth year Gryffindors muttering about Professor McGonagall having a fit if all her house' students were late to her first transfiguration class.

NEWTs transfiguration took place in the sixth year Auditorium like the Charms and defense against the Dark Arts. Again however the seating arrangement looked completely different. Instead of the single desks or the bleacher like side tables there were two rows of long thin tables all of which had individual chars set up in an organized even fashion. Harry noticed as expected that there were a large number of students in the class however it was not quite as many as in the charms or defense classes. Also as expected the students had already taken their places in the room with the Ravenclaws at the front of the room with an empty spot presumably for the arriving Gryffindors. The Hufflepuffs were behind the empty spot left for the Gryffindors while the Slytherins, it seemed every last sixth year Slytherin was taking the class, were behind the Ravenclaws.

Harry, Hermione, Wesley, Ron and Seamus took the first row. Dean, Fred, George, Parvati, Neville and Lavender took the row behind them. Dean noticeably took the furthest possible seat without sitting next to a Hufflepuff that he could from Seamus. Harry also noticed that Seamus was still getting a lot of stares from random students around the room. Ron and Fred were still noticeably uncomfortable as the stares wandered over the entire Gryffindor section. Harry was incredibly relieved when Professor McGonagall walked into the room and took her place at the front of the class. She took absolutely no notice of Seamus or the stares the other students were giving him. She simply cleared her voice like she always did and started class.

"Now I am not going to baby any of you this is a NEWT level class and I expect you all to act accordingly." Harry was not surprised that these were the first words out of her mouth. After all she was known for being a very stern professor. Although most of the students still liked her because she was at least fair and everyone knew she was a great witch. All the students who had not gotten their stuff ready for class did so immediately. Professor McGonagall said nothing simply waited for everyone to finish to start class. She was obviously in a no nonsense mood and so everyone was ready within moments.

"Today we are not doing anything new because you are just back form a long vacation and must have full ability with the OWL material in order to succeed with NEWT level spells at all. For that reason we are going to go over everything we have done in previous years. I have provided everything you need, work for no more than ten minutes on any one spell but make sure that you complete the spell as intended at least once. Now hurry and get started."

The remainder of the class was hectic and Harry found himself working immensely hard to get all the spells right. He had barely been able to do many of them when they had learned them and now to be forced to do them after a summer of no practice and in only ten minutes was difficult. Harry wasn't doing the worst however, neither was Neville as Harry might have thought. Although with how skilled he seemed with his new wand Harry wasn't surprised in the least bit at this.

Wesley was the one who McGonagall kept picking on despite all his insistence that he was horrible at transfiguration. He was very quickly showing everyone in the room how correct his assessment was. Instead of vanishing the snail as they were supposed to do he ended up multiplying it. If McGonagall hadn't been watching him at the time they would have likely overridden the entire table maybe even the entire Auditorium. He then transfigured his rat from a rat into a mouse instead of a pin cushion. Ron and Hermione were the only people who noticed that there had been any change at all aside from Professor McGonagall herself. He hadn't even noticed until it until Hermione pointed it out. It continued like this with Wesley becoming more and more embarrassed at his total lack of anything in the department of transfiguration. Professor McGonagall wasn't particularly helping as she kept insisting that he should have immense talent in the subject. Why she would assume this was anyone's guess.

At one point she took Wesley's wand from him and handed him hers talking about silly Americans and their unpredictable wands. That proved to be a mistake as he seemed even less able with her wand then with his. She continued to have him use other student's wands (much to their dismay) to little or no effect and eventually she gave up trying other wands handed him his wand back and lectured him about not trying hard enough. Harry had never seen Professor McGonagall concentrate on one student nor react to failure like that. Harry was even more surprised when she flat out refused to let him switch to another NEWT upon asking. She said she would bring out his inner talent if it killed her. Being his head of house and thus the one he would have to go to about switching classes he was out of luck.

Somehow despite her constant attention to Wesley she still managed to critique the other students and attempt at least to make everyone do the majority of the spells correctly. With the exception of the Ravenclaws, Neville and Hermione, no one did. However most people had at least managed to get the spells close enough to avoid a lecture and at the end all they got was a short. "I am unimpressed with you all. You all should have been more prepared for this class!" She looked directly at the group of Gryffindors with very stern narrow eyes as she said this. "You will all write me a foot long note about the use and affect of each an every spell that you have learned up to this point! Now off with you!"

"A foot for every spell!" Ron exclaimed as the Gryffindors left the room. "That's gotta be…" Ron stopped and silently counted them in his head. The fact that he hadn't stopped once they were interrupted said wonders for how much work Professor McGonagall had just assigned.

"Lion feh!" Malfoy's voice was heard as he exited the Auditorium. "With the way you Gryffindors complain I'd say more like kitten. No wonder McGonagall is always such a prude! After having to deal with the likes of you all anyone would be." He then scoffed at them with his normal smirk before saying. "Let's go before Weasel here blows a gasket. After all he may miss the litter box and I wouldn't want to be around to see that." Harry and Hermione grabbed Ron to stop him from pouncing on Malfoy, but with his shear size it took Neville's help to finally keep him in line.

"You can't tell me that had no effect on you whatsoever! He just called us a bunch of kittens!" Ron's body was seething with anger as he stared down at his smaller friends. Harry didn't know how to respond. The truth was it hadn't affected him much. Malfoy had attempted much worse things that kitten that summer in attempts to rile them up.

"Will you grow up!" Hermione said straight into Ron's face. "That wasn't even that bad. Honestly one of these days he is going to say 'hi' and you're going to kill him!"

"Yeah well he'd deserve it!" It came out more as a child's tantrum than a real threat.

"Just, don't do anything stupid." Hermione's tone changed in what was obviously a final attempt to add some reason to Ron's thought process before rushing off towards her next class.

"Maybe he should stop being stupid and mind his own business!" Ron said under his breath before he stomped off towards the common room. Part of Harry wanted to follow him but the better part of him knew that that would not help the situation any. Ron already knew his position and rubbing it in would do nothing to help. This was a problem his friend needed to solve alone.

Everyone there was silent for a bit before Wesley spoke up. "I see what you mean about Malfoy. If all the Slytherins acted like that towards me I would despise them too." He said calmly, as if the entire scene were a part of a movie and had not just actually happened.

"Well I see what Ron is mad about I agree with Harry and Hermione." Padma said, "I don't see how sinking down to that git's level will solve anything." Lavender and Neville nodded in agreement. Seamus obviously wanted to rebuttal this but he had his own things to worry about at the moment and Harry was sure he was surprised that they were hanging out with him at all. He obviously didn't want to make waves in the one group that was still treating him more or less the same. Well besides the Slytherins but that wasn't exactly a good thing. Dean chose that moment to walk out of the room where he had been finishing up a conversation with McGonagall and his complete ignorance of the entire group spoke wonders about Seamus' predicament.

"Honestly I think we should get to the Library to work on our reports." Wesley said with a forlorn look on his face. "I hope you'll all help me with mine as I haven't got the faintest idea what she wants out of a report. I know the technicalities of most of the things we did in there. Well that you did and I failed miserably at. But as for the practicalities or what she taught you I am lost. As you can see she doesn't seem to think that I am serious or something."

Fred walked up to them at that point. "Study! Blasphemy!" he said before grabbing Wesley in a headlock. Wesley was significantly frailer than Fred and so when George walked up after him he was still in the headlock. He hadn't even bothered to resist obviously quite aware that he was at the bigger boy's mercy.

"Hey George, could you tell your brother to let me go before I pass out?" Wesley wheezed through the lock. At that Fred let him go. Wesley immediately stopped wheezing and smiled, "Gets em every time!" He said before promptly standing behind Seamus. Fred laughed before his face formed that mischievous smile as he very obviously started planning his revenge against the smaller boy for ending his fun.

"To the library?" Harry asked the group in general. He was actively not acknowledging Fred's shenanigans even though he was quite amused by them.

"Yeah, and don't worry Wes, I'll help you." Seamus said. Apparently he remembered that Wesley was the one to break the tension the night before. He was ever so slowly returning to his more merry self.

Harry only hoped Ron could return to something resembling his friend again. The Ron he remembered was impulsive and prone to anger yes but he hadn't really been violent until more recently. While he generally preferred the more adult Ron he had for a friend now he wished he could convince him that sometimes thought was the better part of valor.

As the group headed down to the library Harry noticed most if not all the people they passed were snickering at them and saying things under their breaths. The group's good mood would have been all but destroyed if it weren't for Wesley and Fred. Fred was trying to grab Wesley again and Wesley was dancing around Seamus merrily keeping the larger boy between them. Seamus seemed happy to take part in this childish game. It was a nice distraction from what was going on around them.

The library was exactly as Harry remembered it. Full of Ravenclaws and other people who were studying and had not time to worry about who was being teased for what. It was a nice refuge considering the morning. They found a place to sit and spent the entire rest of the morning working on their reports.

At one point Ron came in and silently apologized to Harry for his outburst. He then started working on his essays with them.

Lunch was rather mellow that day although Seamus still got stares from quite a few people. Since none of the Gryffindors but Hermione had class that afternoon, they all headed back to the library at Wesley and Parvati's request to finish their assignments, which they all miraculously managed to do before dinner.

Dinner was much like lunch and before he knew it he, Ron, Hermione, and Seamus (who had decided to come to it after all) were walking towards Professor Saren's room for their occlumency lesson. Harry, having been to only one Psionics class with the professor where they had been taught essentially nothing, had very little idea what to expect from the man. Hermione looked rather intrigued and thoughtful. Ron looked nervous and kept looking at Seamus. Seamus seemed rather nervous but also didn't acknowledge Ron's attention in the slightest.

The room looked essentially the same when they walked into it and Harry was slightly disappointed. The only real difference was that the colored pillows were against the back wall instead of arranged on the floor and that instead of hovering above the floor meditating as he had been before, Professor Saren was standing by a pensieve facing the door.

"Hello, I see you decided to come after all Seamus. Although considering the circumstances you don't have any more reason not to be here. Am I right?" Professor Saren's voice was incredibly calm almost soothing as he said this.

"I suppose not," Seamus started.

Saren then moved his head over the four of them as if gazing at them. "I see that nervousness at recent revelations is a possible issue here but that is essentially irrelevant as nervousness can be just as good as it can be bad. The real question is the question of trust. Do you four all trust each other enough to give each other the possibility of unrestricted access to each other's deepest thoughts?" Saren's voice remained soothing but had a sternness to it that made the question seem very serious. "Because I have considered Dumbledore's request and have come to the conclusion after meeting you that it should be you're decision not his who does what when. I will still instruct you in occlumency, but now is the time to decide whether it will be together or on a one on one basis. I highly recommend that if you do trust each other enough that you do it together. It will be a much better experience and you will not risk having me see into your deepest thoughts as readily." He did not smile and his voice did not falter. Harry was certain this could easily be the most important decision he made this entire year.

The others were deep in thought as well. Hermione was seriously considering the options, it was obvious she wanted to be completely sure of her decision. Ron kept nervously looking at Seamus while obviously thinking to himself. Seamus was equally nervous noticing Ron's constant glancing. Harry realized that ha had made his decision. It was up to everyone else now to either agree or not. "I for one would rather do it together. I think it would be better if we could all help each other through this and if we do it together then we will have people who we know are safe to practice with outside of class."

Hermione immediately responded after Harry. "I agree. I trust you enough, and even if I don't now is not the time to worry about it." Harry could see the logic in that, whatever happened it was likely that they would all be forced to trust each other soon because of Voldemort.

"I would like to learn occlumency…" Seamus started, "and I want to learn it with you guys but if you don't want me here…" He trailed off and looked at Ron the only person here yet to respond.

"I would too." He looked at Seamus nervously again. "Yeah, I trust you guys. I won't lie and say I'm not a bit odded out by the whole situation but I don't think trust has much to do with that." Both Ron and Seamus visibly relaxed after that statement.

"I expected as much." Saren said with a quaint smirk. Then his smirk disappeared into a very grave serious expression before he started talking again in a much more serious much less soothing tone. "Then I have something to show you. All four of you. If you were all working apart then this would really only be relevant to Harry. But as it stands it is relevant to you all because it is relevant to him." He then sat down next to the pensieve ob the floor. "Professor Dumbledore also thinks it is more prudent to show more than just one of you this memory. It will hopefully allow the wounds it may cause to heal faster. I will not lie to you and say it is a good memory or that it won't hurt any of you, but since you will be practicing legillimency to use on each other and because it is important to understand what you are defending yourself against. It is important that anything that could truly cause a rift between us get out in the open now so we can deal with it before we start training."

With that he waved his hand over the pensieve and said. "I will not be following you. Watch and you will see why I warned you. It may bring forth some revelations you are not prepared to face." He looked at Harry again. "You must face them or you will never master occlumency nor will you have any chance against what's to come." He then pushed the pensieve towards the now suitably spooked students. Harry decided it was now or never and so dove right into it nose first as he had learned on previous years. He felt the familiar sensation of falling through icy cold blackness.

Harry found himself on an empty Platform nine and three quarters complete with the Hogwarts express, although it was not puffing out smoke in fact it was obvious that the memory was in some sort of still as a puff of smoke was hovering over the engine's smokestack as if it had just come out and was beginning to dissipate. Hermione appeared on the platform a few seconds after he did followed by Seamus and finally Ron. They all looked at each other surprised.

"That was amazing." Hermione said. "Nothing like what I imagined from reading about it." Harry knew she was talking about the trip into the memory but he didn't care all that much. He was more curious as to why they were at a frozen platform nine and three quarters.

As if to answer his question the memory started moving. Ron was startled as people started entering the platform form the wall between platforms nine and ten. "You can't talk to them." Hermione said, "They are simply memories." She then moved to the corner of the platform and motioned them over. Harry knew what she was doing. They could see better from there.

Harry wondered what they were here for more until he saw a very young boy. He looked about the age of eight and yet he was lugging around a full trunk as if he were going to Hogwarts as a first year. Harry wasn't sure whether this was of any importance at all, but it was the only thing that stood out to him about the memory and so he decided to watch and see what happened. He glanced at his friends and they seemed to be watching the same boy. He quickly returned his gaze to the boy not wanting to miss anything.

Harry wasn't sure why but the boy seemed familiar to him. He had shiny jet black hair and bright blue eyes that seemed to sparkle. His hair was cut short except for his bangs which hung almost over his eyes. He had a toned build for an eight year old and he seemed to be having more trouble with the awkwardness of the sheer size of the trunk rather than the weight as he wasn't panting or showing any signs of being tired, just shifting around a lot like he was trying to get a better grip.

That was when an older looking boy walked up to him. He looked about ten or eleven, a more expected age for a Hogwarts student. He had black hair much like the younger boy and had dark eyes. His hair was short and he had a slightly hooked nose. It looked to Harry like a younger version of Snape but he couldn't believe that because the boy seemed very happy completely devoid of the scowl that now more than anything else defined his professor.

"You look a bit young to be here?" The older looking boy said to the younger looking boy. It wasn't in a mean spirited tone simply a curious one.

"I get that a lot." Was all the boy said. He seemed rather timid, but his voice had a soothing tone to it that made Harry wonder if this was in fact the man whose memory he was in. It seemed so odd though. The boy had a completely different demeanor then the man sitting on the floor in the room with the pensieve. The man was strong and the boy was not. Also the fact that the boy could see and the man couldn't dawned on him.

"Oh ok, obviously you are going to school so I suppose it doesn't really matter how old you are." The older boy then turned towards the younger one. "Need help with that?" He asked sincerely. He was lugging around a much smaller trunk that was obviously enlarged inside as it could not possibly hold all the things a first year would need. That would imply that he was from a wizarding family and a rather prominent one at that considering the quality and make of his clothing and his trunk.

"Thanks." The younger boy said timidly yet politely. He seemed intimidated by the older and bigger boy. Harry wasn't at all surprised by this, even though the older boy was hardly intimidating.

"You're welcome, I'm Severus." The older boy said and held his hand out towards the younger one.

"Leon." The younger boy said and then smiled. The picture then stopped with them shaking hands.

Harry was totally stunned and it seemed like he was not the only one. "That's Snape and Saren?" Harry exclaimed just then remembering that Saren's first name was Leon.

"It appears so." Hermione said with a very intrigued look on her face.

"It can't be…" Ron said, "The Snape we know would never act so happy nor offer his help to someone without an ultimatum or at least a sneer." Harry had to agree. The only thing about the boy that was remotely Snape like was his hooked shaped nose.

Seamus didn't say anything but he looked just as confused as everyone else.

"Shh!" Hermione shushed Harry and Ron. Harry was about to protest not being finished with his thoughts on Snape when he realized why she had stopped them. The memory had started again.

Severus and Leon carried Leon's Trunk onto the train. Then the scene changed and Harry felt the icy blackness again. They were on a car on the Hogwarts express and Severus and Leon were carrying Leon's trunk obviously looking for a place to sit. Another very familiar boy's voice was heard from a nearby compartment as it opened. "Hey! You a first year too?" The voice asked Severus.

"Yeah." Severus responded while Leon remained silent.

"And whose that your little brother? Helping you carry on your stuff?" Another familiar voice with a much more dangerous gleam to it came from the same compartment.

"No actually he's a first year too. I wouldn't have believed it myself had I not seen him come onto the platform himself holding this." Severus motioned towards the trunk.

"Ok so you're like some eight year old prodigy or something?" The dangerous voice said in an amused tone.

"No, I'm eleven I just look really young for my age." Leon was still a bit timid but it looked like Severus was having a bolstering effect on him. Harry thought that odd although that would explain why his two professors knew each other and why Snape actually bothered not only talking to him but being civil with him at that.

"Hmm, interesting any reason why?" A third familiar boy's voice which sounded a bit more mature and thoughtful than the other two came out of the room. It also sounded slightly sickly or at the very least tired. Harry was not sure at all but the names attached to these voices were just outside the reaches of his mind. That and if these were people he knew they would be a lot older now.

"I don't know, I just do I always have." Leon was obviously trying to sound a lot cooler about the situation then he actually was. No one that Harry could see seemed to notice.

"Well what are you waiting there for? There is plenty of room in here for two more." The first voice said and then a very familiar head poked its way out into the corridor and into the hall. Harry heard three other gasps and then a noise of recognition from Hermione. The boy looked almost exactly like Harry had looked like at that age except for a lack of a lightning scar and blue instead of green eyes.

Harry was stunned. If in fact this was Severus Snape and that was in fact his father James, and he could see no other two people that they could be especially considering the name's given so far, then why did they become enemies? Harry walked over and looked into the compartment only to be confused more. There was almost no mistake. He was looking at the eleven year old forms of the marauders. The boy and obvious owner of the mature tired voice was the splitting image of the man he would become, simply with less facial hair and more baby fat. All the other features were the same: hair color, eye color, facial structure… It was almost like looking at a miniaturized version of Remus Lupin and not simply a younger one. Sirius Black was also there the owner of the more dangerous sounding voice. He still had the same hair and the same mischievous smile, but he looked much healthier not having had his stay at Azkaban yet. He also looked a lot meaner than the man he knew. He felt a slight bit of anger at this but he realized that the boy didn't make him as angry as the man. All his memories of the boy were of a chauvinistic bastard. He almost didn't see how the boy could become the man he had grown to love. Then again this whole memory was painting a very different picture of his father's youth than he had originally thought.

"I'm James." The boy said confirming what Harry already knew.

"Severus," Severus said extending a hand.

"I'm Remus." The younger Lupin said. He had a tired, wary but at the same time happy smile plastered on his face.

"Sirius…" The boy with the dangerous voice said. And there it was, the marauders were confirmed.

"What about you kid?" Sirius asked.

"I'm Leon." The boy said and then the five of them started chatting away. Harry couldn't tell what about because the scene began fast forwarding like a movie in a muggle VCR might.

"Snape met the Marauders on the train and they were friendly to each other?" Ron was totally perplexed at this. Seamus looked totally lost. Not that Harry would expect him to know anything about them.

"Let's just watch." Hermione said while intently watching the speeding memories. "It's not finished yet and we won't know what this is really about until it's done." Harry decided that Hermione was correct. This was only part of a much bigger picture. That was plainly obvious.

The scene slowed down near the end of the trip. "So, friends then?" Severus asked the others happily.

"I don't see why not? After all it seems like we will all be placed in the same house." Remus said.

"And if were not?" Leon spoke up timidly.

"Doesn't matter really does it?" Sirius said. "As long as were not in Slytherin. My cousin Lucius is in Slytherin and he is a real git." He then smiled and looked at the remaining people in the car before saying. "Not to mention the very likely rumor that You Know Who was in that house."

Severus looked rather spooked at this as did Leon. Harry wasn't sure but he thought they had known that they would likely be sorted into Slytherin before they had even started school. They were both obviously from wizarding families. They knew too much about what was going on to not be. Harry remembered his time on the train. He hadn't even understood what the houses were let alone who was in them.

James then said something that Harry knew was going to be their downfall, he just knew it. "Let us pledge then to give the Slytherins as much hell as we can. In the name of all that is good and mighty!" It sounded all nice and childish but Harry knew exactly where this was leading. A dark thought began to form, if this was at all accurate than the rivalry between Severus and James was not a rivalry at all but a betrayal.

The five of them put their hands in the circle, Leon, Severus and surprisingly Remus looked nervous at the idea. After that the memory ended and the icy blackness passed again depositing them in the great hall which looked pretty much the same as it always did. The Slytherin colors lined the hall and a much younger looking Minerva McGonagall was leading the new students into the room with a hop to her step that made Harry realize just how old she must be. Hagrid looked pretty much exactly the same as did the stool and the hat that McGonagall put in the middle of the stage.

The scene didn't start at normal speed until she started reading off names. "Black, Sirius" was the first name the memory showed. The hat took a long while deciding and Harry noticed a nervous tinge in the boy's body. In the end it yelled out "GRYFFINDOR!" as he knew it would.

Fast forwarding to another name Harry did not expect where it landed. "Evans, Lily," she unlike the others was almost instantaneously put in her house with a resounding "GRYFFINDOR!" Harry wasn't sure what relevance this had but he was too busy trying to pay attention to what was going on to really think about it. It didn't seem nearly as relevant to the scene as the sorting of his father and his friends.

The scene fast forwarded again skipping names until it stopped and McGonagall said, "Lupin, Remus." Remus walked up to the chair more tired than anything else. _The moon must have been almost full that night._ Harry thought as he remembered how his instructor had gotten as the full moon neared. This time the hat took a lot less time but it wasn't instantaneous. It also yelled out. "GRYFFINDOR!" This time Harry looked towards the rest of the first years. He noticed immediately that both Leon and Severus were looking agitated as their fiends were being put into the most anti-Slytherin of houses. It was ever more apparent that they were expecting to be put into the house that they themselves had just sworn to help destroy. Not exactly the smartest idea but he probably would have done the same thing in their place.

The scene then raced slightly forward to the next important sorting. "Potter, James." McGonagall's voice seemed louder and more accusatory to Harry then the others had. He thought that was part of his imagination. The hat took almost as long as it had with Sirius before yelling "GRYFFINDOR!" as Harry knew it would. James looked totally spooked after that. Harry guessed that he had been highly considered for Slytherin just like he had been and he would guess Sirius had been as well. Harry noticed that a small round student who looked quite a bit like Peter Pettigrew. Of course he wouldn't be relevant to Saren's story, simply to Harry's.

"Saren, Leon." McGonagall's voice snapped Harry out of his thoughts as he watched the sorting of his future professor. It took a long time to sort the boy but in the end the hat yelled "SLYTHERIN!" Harry immediately looked at the Gryffindor table. James and Sirius had angry looks on their faces. Leon walked over to the Slytherin table quite timidly. Harry noticed a boy who looked quite a lot like Draco but with much longer hair sitting among the older students. Harry wanted to kill him right there so he couldn't do the things he did, but he could not affect the memory in any way and so just stood there watching and seething in his anger at the events he was witnessing but could do nothing about.

Severus was sorted immediately after Leon was so there was no speeding of the memory. "Snape, Severus," was followed by a long period of time and a yelled "SLYTHERIN!" Harry stared at his father and his friends. Remus looked forlorn but Sirius and James looked even more pissed than they looked before.

Harry was not sure who he was mad at right now. He knew what he was seeing had to be real. But it made him wonder who to really be angry with. He felt the scene switch again and the icy blackness actually calmed his nerves. Apparently there was more.

The next scene was incredibly different then the last. It was Leon walking through the courtyard reading a book of some sort. Harry wasn't sure what importance this had but it was obvious and apparent in a few seconds. A spell flew out of a side hallway to the courtyard and hit Leon smack in the chest. He began laughing incredibly hard and that was when Harry recognized the curse as the tickling curse. Then Sirius and James ran out of the side door laughing at the laughing boy and saying things to him that made no sense to Harry.

"You think we wouldn't find out? That you are a twilight walker? A blood taster?" Sirius said as he circled the still laughing Leon. Harry notices Leon was trying to say something but he couldn't speak through the laughing. Harry then noticed that Leon was wheezing thought the laugh. Harry didn't know what the long term effects of the curse were. Malfoy had been freed from it too quickly for him to know. As he watched the scene it became painfully obvious to Harry that the long term effects were exactly what the effects of actually laughing that long, death by asphyxiation.

Harry watched as James and Sirius watched Leon literally choke on his own laughter. Suddenly he heard Severus' voice say " _finite incantatem!_ " Before the boy ran out and stood between Sirius and Leon who was now panting for the air he had lost in his curse induced laughing fit.

Harry noticed out of the corner of his eye Lily Evans who quickly ran off down the hall, but he wanted to see where this was leading. His mother was obviously apart of this but if he had learned anything from his previous experiences with pensieves it was that the memory leads the watcher not the other way around. If she was that important to the events she would have been there. He was happy that she did not take part in this though. And it looked from the expression on her face that she was appalled at this. Obviously she had reasons to dislike James. Harry still did not understand why they had gotten together. Although he supposed that part of him should be thankful they did or he himself would not exist.

The day ended without a duel or anything when Lily returned with Professor McGonagall who shoed off the students besides Leon whom she quickly took to the infirmary.

The scene then fast forwarded through Severus doing lots of library research. Harry couldn't see what the books were but it was obviously important. He noticed Hermione's mind racing. No doubt she knew exactly what he was doing.

The icy feeling returned as blackness engulfed them and Harry instantly recognized the room they were in. It was the room that Saren's psionics class was in. It looked exactly the same as it did in his time, with the exception of Saren's colored pillows, right down to the tapestry on the wall. Harry was startled by the entry of Sirius, Severus, James, and a person who Harry barely recognized as the younger version of the Death eater Avery.

Harry watched as James and Severus stared each other down before bringing their wands to the ready. "They are going to duel." Harry heard Ron and Seamus say at the same time under their breaths. No one responded to this as they were too engulfed by the scene. Harry was lost. He couldn't feel anything he was really confused as to what he felt at the moment. He knew he felt something and that it was rather strong but he had no idea what that emotion actually was.

Sirius and Avery, obviously James and Severus' seconds, got their wands ready too. What happened next was a complete surprise. Severus and James struck at the same time, with exactly the same curse. A curse designed to blind their opponent. Harry watched as the scene almost played out in slow motion. Leon jumped out of a shadow where he had previously been completely hidden and jumped between the two a split second before the curses hit. He took a direct hit from both curses simultaneously and then the entire memory disappeared. It hadn't gone black or dark as Harry had expected it simply had no sight at all. It was an experience that he doubted he would ever experience again nor be able to explain after he was done. He simply could not see. He heard what was going on though quite vividly.

"Look what you made me do! Now Dumbledore is going to kill us." James voice was agitated.

"God is that all you can think about there is a person here that we just blinded!" Severus sounded more worried about Leon than anything else.

"Oh cut the fuss he's a Dhampyr anyway! It's not like he really needs to see the smell of blood is all he cares about anyway." Harry heard a gasp from somewhere that was obviously not part of the memory and Hermione let out a faint "duh."

"What is going… OH MY GOD!"

"Lily wait!" James was heard yelling after her. He swore signaling to Harry that he had not succeeded.

"Right, so when a teacher comes we'll just say we were practicing right?"

"I guess that will make it easier wont it." An agitated Sirius said to the group.

"Yeah I agree." Severus was obviously too scared of getting caught to consider the ethics of it.

Leon responded with a "No I will not lie! You were here to duel and you could have gotten yourselves killed!" He yelled at them, apparently somewhere between this scene and the last he had gotten more of a backbone.

Sirius' voice scared Harry to the bone. "No one would miss you so I suggest you agree stay quiet." He sounded like a death eater to Harry. Sirius really had been a different person back then.

James voice was totally shocked. "Sirius you want to get us expelled!" Harry couldn't see what was likely an unsaid response. He had no idea what Severus was doing at the moment.

"We're screwed now anyway." A fourth voice that had to be Avery's tuned in. "Dueling is an expellable offense and certainly threatening a fellow student is as well. And I don't think that Dumbledore would see your point about him being half Vampire." _HALF VAMPIRE!_

"Ok ok… I know!" James said and then. _"obl'v'ate_ " he heard his father botch the memory charm in his haste and then the memory ended and he felt himself being lifted out of the pensieve back to the real world.

The last thing he noticed before the wave of sheer anger hit him was Hermione trying to calm down Ron and Seamus who were leveling their wands towards Saren. Then all he could sense was his own anger. He felt the pent up rage he had been keeping down for the entire summer surface instantly and it was nothing like what had happened before in the common room. He simply exploded in a rage forgetting his wand entirely before rushing towards Saren fists first. _It's his fault all of this is his fault! It would never have happened had he not agreed to lie that day!_ Was his last thought before he felt his mind fall away. Then every pleasant memory he had ever had surfaced into his thoughts. He was totally unaware what was going on as his mind was in turmoil, a storm of random positive and negative feelings that led to nothing but confusion. The last thing he remembered before the blackness of unconsciousness was his own voice asking. "Father…Sirius… why…"


End file.
